Catch Them If You Can!
by Taranea
Summary: After a mission to foil Robotnik's plans goes VERY wrong, Sonic & his friends find themselves in a strange new world, full of fascinating creatures...and kids calling themselves "trainers" hell-bent on capturing our heroes! But to get back home, they may need their help - which would be a LOT easier if they even spoke their language...(semi-Xover, no Pokémon knowledge necessary :)
1. Prologue

**Author's notes:**

Hello and welcome to the latest fic! :D Yeah, I have about a dozen others in the works, but at least with this one I also have about a dozen chapters already written...ahem!

So, this fanfic is a crossover of Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokemon (the Anime, mostly) but emphasis is probably more on the Sonic characters, like...70/30? This also might be moved into the crossover section as more content develops. As always, I will try to make this fanfic understandable for anyone who only knows one of the two fandoms, though! Pokemon elements will also likely be mostly limited to first gen pokemon and the kanto season of the anime, because I'm...old.

 **Short(!) Pokémon Primer:**

For anyone who doesn't know Pokémon at all, the basics are: Pokémon are powerful animal-like creatures with elemental powers and they are nearly always named after the sound they produce (a Pikachu is named after the 'Pikachu' call that species does, etc). The main characters of Pokemon are the young trainer Ash Ketchum, who wants to explore the world and get better at Pokemon Training (that is, catching Pokemon and training them to make them stronger so they can fight against other Pokemon) and his two friends, Brock and Misty (who are also Trainers but are focused less on fighting and more on nurturing). They all occasionally stop by at Professor Oak's laboratory who is a Pokemon Researcher and generally an enthusiastic (if bumbling and scatter-minded) encyclopedia on Pokemon knowledge. You can catch Pokemon with devices called Pokeballs if you defeat them, where they are then stored as data inside. You can carry the fist-sized Pokeballs around with you and call forth the Pokemon whenever you wish.

And there you go!That's all you need to know for this fic! Soooo...

...hope you like! Now please enjoy...

* * *

 **Catch Them If You Can!**

 _by Taranea_

 **Prologue:**

"Well, that worked out brilliantly."

"Shut it."

" _Shut_ it? It is your chaos-damned fault, faker, that we ended up here! You completely wrecked what was supposed to be a _stealth_ operation-!"

"Stealth, shmealth. Maybe I wouldn't have ruined your little trip if you for once deigned to tell the rest of us what you were doing, ever thought about that?"

"…Rouge said it was supposed to stay secret." Shadow's voice sounded ever so slightly sullen at this last bit. Sonic shot him a non-impressed look.

"And yeah, when GUN command says something it's secret, of _course_ you don't tell the hedgehog who's trying to save everybody's bacon, sure. You know, I know you're only helping Rouge out on her missions occasionally to pay her for rent, but if that's true, you should really rather trust us than GUN." Sonic took a breath, trying to sound slightly more amenable before he continued, hoping that he might finally, finally get something through the ultimate lifeform's apparently ultimate bonehead. "Seriously, we're your _friends_ , Shadow. You _can_ trust us."

"...trusting is not something I really do."

Sonic the Hedgehog gave a quietly frustrated groan. Since he was currently sitting in a large, unbreakable-even-for-Chaos-sharpened-quills-cage, opposite his also-trapped rival, both of them imprisoned in the laboratory of his worst enemy and effectively helpless, he felt he was entitled to it.

Well.

At least _Sonic_ was sitting in a cage, _Shadow_ was spread-eagled in a much more worrying-looking vertical metal ring over five feet in diameter, his wrists and ankles encased in clamps attached to the contraption. His figure was actually now reminiscent of a certain famous drawing, if maybe Leonardo da Vinci had been less focused on human anatomy, and more on that of anthropomorphic hedgehogs.

The split second distraction only a few minutes ago had been enough to land them in this predicament. When Sonic had charged into the laboratory just a few moments earlier with the intent to surprise Robotnik, it had instead been _him_ who had almost caught a Chaos Spear to the face, surprising Shadow already engaged with the Doctor instead. Which had led to _both_ of them getting caught in the Doctor's stun gun blast. And now they had regained consciousness alone, in their respective restraints, with the human scientist nowhere to be seen. Sonic gripped one of the bars of his cage more tightly.

"If Robotnik manages to complete his plan, Tails said we'd be, well...toast. I mean, I didn't understand half of what he's even trying to do-"

("Probably because you didn't pay attention in a single science lesson in your life-" Shadow muttered, but was ignored)

"- but I think it boiled down to him getting a lot of energy and, uh, making stuff blow up, I think?"

Shadow rolled his eyes. _"Technically_ , his plan is to create a trans-dimensional quantum funnel that allows him to access the void between worlds, where he would then be able to transform pocket dimensions into pure energy able to power a high-frequency extraterrestrial laser cannon, but-"

"So yeah, basically what I said," Sonic cut him off. "Something something, eggy being a jerkface not only to Mobius but to other worlds as well. Makes it twice as important that we stop him."

Shadow showed for one moment the pained expression any learned individual had when Sonic the Hedgehog started mangling science, but it was gone as soon as the sliding door to the laboratory opened with a _swish_ and their current captor walked into the room.

"Well, well, well, a spat among friends?"

"We're _not_ -" Shadow started, hands in their restraints already starting to curl into fists, but Sonic interrupted him, nothing but a pleasant smile on his face.

"No, actually we're just having a lively discussion about running techniques, egghead, care to join? 'Course in your case it might be more to do with _rolling_ , but..."

"Funny, Sonic." Robotnik snorted, mirthlessly. "But there's not much you could do to anger me today – not after you've so thoughtfully provided me with _just_ what I needed to power my machine." So saying, the human scientist pressed a few buttons on the contraption in the center of the room – the contraption, which incidentally looked like someone had tried to build a hollowed-out Death Star pickled with Star Posts, the dark blue Chaos Emerald glowing worryingly in the middle – and it started to ominously hum as machines built by madmen are wont to do.

Far more concerningly, Robotnik then bent down to retrieve several clamps on cables leading from it, and started attaching them to the metal ring Shadow was spread-eagled inside.

"Whatever it is you're planning to do, I am not going to cooperate, doctor," Shadow said coldly, but it didn't seem to impress the human much. Sonic could see the black hedgehog's body stiffen as Robotnik moved around him, connecting more cables to the ring, the entire process looking as if Robotnik was somehow trying to use a hedgehog to jump-start a car. Sonic thought he probably would have laughed if the situation hadn't looked quite as dire. Shadow appeared to know this, too.

"Also, Rouge already knows that this mission has gone south, so she's off to get back up. GUN will be here in less than 15 minutes," he said, voice strained.

"Well, fortunately by then they'll just be here in time for their annihilation," Robotnik purred, voice still as smooth as oiled machinery. "When I will have sucked all the worlds of the multiverse dry of their energy, using _you_ as the ultimate Chaos siphon, Shadow." He patted the black hedgehog's cheek as he attached the last cable. In his restraints, Shadow snarled viciously and appeared to actually instinctively tried to bite the human's hand before Robotnik hurriedly drew it back.

"Now, now. It appears _someone_ is eager for this experiment to start…"

"No!" Shadow's eyes had at once widened as the doctor moved away to the console of his contraption, before he then glared straight at Sonic, his words hissed through his teeth. " _This is all your fault!_ "

"Well, I mean, uh, 'fault' is really a harsh word here, Shads, don't you think-" Sonic started to hedge, mostly talking to simply hopefully bide some more time, trying to work out how on Mobius they were ever going to get out of this – when there was an ever so quiet noise from above, only audible if you knew what to listen for. Sonic exhaled, all at once feeling like he had to hide a smile.

"…you should just relax, Shadow?"

" _Relax_?!" Shadow snapped, still struggling against the restraints around his ankles and wrists, the hum of the machine growing louder and louder, "The Doctor is charging up his machine right this minute, I will be _fried_ to death-!"

"Like I said," Sonic said, and now he couldn't help a grin. "It's all about trusting in your friends."

" _What_?" Now both Shadow and Robotnik were staring at Sonic, interestingly equal expressions of irritiation on their faces.

"I'm not like Shadow, doc," Sonic said casually. "Did you think I came here alone?"

"…oh no. Please don't tell me-" Shadow started, his own expression of slowly dawning dread actually _still_ pretty much a replicate of the doctor's, and that was as far as he came before the ceiling of the lab caved in.

xxx

(and the Pokémon part starts - it is quite short, though, and only serves as an introduction to the characters. If you want Pictures to go with it, ask Google for Professor Oak, Misty and the Pokemon Psyduck)

xxx

 _About the same time, just a quantum leap away…_

"And if we tighten a screw here...and one here...if you could hand me that other screwdriver, Misty?"

"Sure, here you go." Handing Professor Oak what felt like the 100th tool in a row, a (slightly despairing) Misty was currently wondering whether the scientist had, in fact, more screwdrivers than there were Pokemon, and whether she wouldn't have been better off going out with Ash and Pikachu for a stroll in the forest or with Brock to feed the ranch's Pokemon.

She sighed.

 _And here I thought since we actually came to Pallet town to *relax* for a few days I could simply put my feet up inside for a day, but nooo..._

"Is this going to take much longer, Professor?" the red-haired young girl asked a little bit too brightly, but Professor Oak simply waved her off, at the same time straightening up from the machine he had been fiddling with.

"No, in fact, I am almost done. You are looking, Misty, at the first translator of Pokemon language _in the world_!" he proclaimed proudly, gesturing at the bulky mechanical box looking a bit like an ancient computer crossed over with a submarine radar.

"Oh, wow. That does sound impressive," Misty blinked. "Shall I go get Brock and Ash so they can have a look, too-" she began, already edging toward the door, but the professor interrupted her, his hand landing on her shoulder with that particular grip of steel talkative old people often seem to have.

"No, no, wait, let's have a trial run right now!" Professor Oak gestured to the pokeballs Misty had deposited on the lab table next to the newly-built machine. "For example, we have been wondering why your Psyduck is suffering from a headache for ages, now we can _finally_ ask it directly! Please let it out!"

"Uh-" Misty hesitated for a moment, as always slightly overwhelmed by the scientist's sheer enthusiasm, but then of course, the decision was already out of her hands as one of her pokeballs (as always) suddenly started to shake unbidden, opening and -

"PSYYYYDUCK!"

...the familiar figure of an utterly confused duck Pokemon had suddenly materialized on the lab floor, blinking up at her and also holding its tilted head.

"Psyduck?"

It sounded quite hopeful.

"No, Psyduck, I didn't _actually_ call you -" Misty began, rubbing her forehead, but then shook her head and sighed again. "But oh, alright. If you're already out. I guess you can switch on the machine now, Professor."

"On it! This will be the scientific revolution of the century!" Professor Oak proclaimed proudly, at the same time pressing a button on the machine's side that let it hum into life. "Now, in the telepathic field this machine creates around it, anything your Psyduck says will sound to us like human speech," he explained to Misty, before bending down toward the Pokemon.

"Now, Psyduck. Are you ready to be the first Pokemon to write history? If yes, then tell us: _Why do you keep holding your head_?"

The psyduck stared at him, blinking slowly. Professor Oak stared back just as intently. The Pokemon opened its beak. Even Misty could feel herself stop breathing, wondering how it might even sound for her Pokemon to speak, whether its voice would change, if it -

"Psyyyyyduck."

There was a distinct moment of silence in the lab.

"Uh...that didn't _exactly_ sound like human speech, Professor..."

"Psyduck?" The Pokemon now sounded slightly concerned for the scientist, who looked somewhat shocked.

"But...I was sure this should work...!"

"Maybe it does?" Misty ventured. "I always thought Psyduck was, uh, kinda _special_ , to be honest. Maybe it is actually just literally saying 'Psyduck'...?" she tried, but Professor Oak was already shaking his head, drumming his fingers on the machine.

"No. No. Something must be wrong with it, I need to go over the circuitry again-"

And then even he was drowned out, because suddenly, there was a booming noise of thunder from outside and a bright flash from the sky.

"Huh?!" Both the man and the girl's heads flew around to the window. "What was that?!" Misty asked. "It seemed to come from the forest around town..."

"Summer lightning?" Oak frowned. "I hope Ash is okay, he was heading out there for a stroll..."

"I _think_ his hardhead would probably endure even a tree falling on it," Misty said casually, but even she looked a little worried.

"There doesn't seem to be any smoke, though. If there was a lightning strike even from a gathering of electro type Pokemon, I don't think it hit anything," Oak said. "It probably was just bright light after all..."

"Hm. Okay." Misty pursed her lips. "I said I'd go with Brock into town to get your supplies, professor Oak, but if there's news of anything bad happening, can you call us back? I heard Team Rocket is in the area, too, and those Pokémon thieves are always bad news..."

"Of course," Oak nodded as the red-haired girl collected her things into a backpack again. "Take care!"

"Thank you, you too!" Misty waved at him as she jogged from the house, but of course the professor was already pouring over the plans of his translator again. Misty privately supposed the scientist probably wouldn't notice if a lightning strike hit his own farmhouse roof when he was engrossed like this, but then again, probably nothing too strange _had_ happened, right...?

xxx

" _Hold it right there, Buttnik_!"

"SONIC! I'LL SAVE YOU!"

"Human THIEF! Where is the Emerald you stole?!"

"NO!" Robotnik's face had transformed into a mask of horror at the spectacle of first a hammer, then two spiked fists, and _then_ the curled form of a fox kit breaking through the ceiling of the lab, the neighbouring dimension of Mobius of course the very definition of 'too strange'. The explosion was also followed shortly by three furry bodies bursting into the room, as well as a giant hammer. In their wake, there were chunks of debris raining down, marvelously missing any of the three people inside, but only barely.

"Sonic! There you are!" the two-tailed fox kid of the invader trio shrieked, having discovered his trapped hedgehog brother first. "Knuckles, you have to get him out!"

"Do I really?"

" _Knuckles_!" the kit protested, looking at his echidna companion with an expression of deep betrayal, but it was actually Sonic himself who interrupted,

"Uh, guys, thanks for the save and all, but I think Eggman's machine is-"

" _It's about to implode, you fools, that is what it is!"_ Robotnik roared at this point, already at the door and hammering furiously on the lock pad which was now refusing to open, sparks from the destroyed machinery under the fallen debris flying everywhere. The death-star-portal-funnel-whatever (as Sonic had mentally designated the thing in the middle of the room) was also badly damaged and now pulsing in a way that nobody needed an engineering degree to tell was a probably a _really_ bad sign.

"Oh." Amy managed, eyes wide. "Do…do you think it would help if I hit it with my hammer?"

"This. This is how I die," Shadow muttered, right before barking, "WOMAN! _When has this question ever been answered with 'yes'-_?!" but by then, it was already too late. None of the people in the laboratory ever found out whether it would, in fact, have helped to hit the damaged machine with a hammer, because there was already a small supernova forming in its center, blindingly bright energy bursting from the top of every star post mounted on it, the searing sphere in its center expanding as pure lightning rushed along the wires still connecting Shadow to the machine, hitting the Ultimate Lifeform who _screamed_ …

And then even that scream was cut off as Sonic abruptly had the feeling of the universe folding in on itself and a light as bright as the sun engulfing them all.

 _To be continued…_

* * *

There, I hope you enjoyed! Actual interaction (gasp!) to come next chapter! Maybe I'll even be able to fit an update in before I leave for Summer of Sonic. ;) And as always, if you read, please review!


	2. Of Mice and Men

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

CuzImCoolBro: Yeah, summer hols are here and I'm (somewhat) alive again! :p Glad you stuck around! :) To answer your questions, yeah, that translator is going to come in handy for sure - Sonic is not going to have much fun without it ;) I'm planning to continue First Class...soonish? before summer is over? Hopefully? I do try to spread out the updates equally, but this story is fairly easy since I already have such a huge chunk of it lying around. I also have watched the 11th season of SPN and liked it a lot! :D

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Of Mice and Men**

The world, as it reappeared, was extremely spinny, extremely soggy, and, as Sonic found out, also extremely hurty.

"Oooomph!"

There was a soft, muffled _thud_! as approximately 77 pounds of hedgehog hit soft, green grass. For a moment, Sonic considered just continuing to lie there, maybe pretending to be a blue, (somewhat singed) spiky shrubbery for a while. Then he finally groaned and lifted his head.

"Ow. _Ow_. Tails?"

There was no answer. Sonic blinked again, and shook his head, trying to clear it. His body was clearly protesting having to get up again so soon, but, this being the body of Sonic the Hedgehog, it also clearly knew that it was fighting a losing a battle against its insane owner anyway. Sonic sat up, glancing around at his surroundings.

"Uhm. Shadow? Knux? _Hello_!" Sonic shouted the last word, but was again met with silence. He was sitting on a small, sun-dappled clearing, in a forest he wasn't sure he knew. It certainly couldn't be one of the forests of Emerald Hill Zone where Robotnik's base had been, though, those looked far more tropical than the woods he currently found himself in.

 _Um. Well, the explosion_ _did_ _feel kinda like a Chaos Control. Only apparently the others didn't quite get teleported to the same spot as me…wherever this is, anyway,_ Sonic thought, glancing around some more as he picked himself up. The weather was the same as it had been in Emerald Hill Zone, a warm, sunny spring day on the verge of becoming summer, so he hoped that at least meant he hadn't been teleported very far by the malfunctioning machine. Especially since the Chaos Emerald hadn't come with him.

 _Yeah, no such luck, of course,_ Sonic huffed mentally. Well, maybe it had gone with one of the others? (Who of course had to have been safely teleported away also. The alternative was _not_ an option in Sonic's mind.)

No, now all he had to do was find out which Zone this was and then systematically race through it and the surrounding ones until he had found Amy and Tails – Knuckles and Shadow would be fine on their own – and maybe also a certain Egghead whose fault this all was and who deserved a good whooping for it, and then just turning on the mach speed and be home in timer for dinner, easy as -

" _Oh wow, what is that?!"_

"Huh?!" Sonic whirled around, planning abruptly interrupted. On the other edge of the clearing, a human boy had appeared, was staring at him and excitedly exclaiming something, but Sonic hadn't quite been able to make it out. It was definitely a younger kid, with unruly black hair and a baseball cap, and, judging by his green backpack, also out for a hike in the woods. Sonic noticed that he also had sort of strange pet with him, a sort of yellow chao – _that he is_ _apparently speaking to_? Sonic wondered, because the boy was definitely looking more at the pet than at him, though he was glancing back and forth.

" _Have you ever seen something like it before, Pikachu?! It looks like a form of rattata!"_

Sonic _still_ couldn't make out what the other said, but for some reason he wondered whether he should somehow feel insulted.

He started to cross the clearing to make himself better understood, trying a friendly wave.

"Uh, hey, hi," Sonic began, also adding a small smile, "Listen, could you maybe tell me-"

For some strange reason, the boy didn't react to the greeting, either, but was now pointing a sort of odd, red, game boy-like object at Sonic and staring down at it. The hedgehog frowned and paused as the thing flashed and beeped at him, spines tensing in slight wariness.

"Uh...what are you doing?"

The human looked back up at his question but still seemed disinclined to answer. Instead, he was now starting to look confused, indicated by the way he kept rapidly glancing from the apparently unhelpful screen of the thing toward Sonic and back again.

" _That's weird, the pokedex has, like, no information..."_

And even though he was closer now, Sonic _still_ couldn't make out what he said. Slowly, a sneaking suspicion started to rise in the blue hedgehog's stomach, prepared to reverse direction and turn into a sinking feeling any moment.

"Excuse me, do you speak Mobian?" Sonic asked, swallowing. If he had landed far away enough for people to speak a different _language,_ getting home could potentially involve more than just a bit of running.

The kid looked at him quizzically for a moment, as if trying to figure out what he had just said – but then actually seemed to shrug and then completely ignore him and instead talk to his freaky pet thing.

" _Alright, Pikachu! I can't make out its name, but a new Pokemon, how awesome is that?! Professor Oak will be thrilled!"_

"Yo! Kid!" Sonic shouted now, annoyed. He might be able to get some communication across using his hands and feet or drawing something in the dust, but not if this (obviously slightly mentally challenged) human wouldn't even acknowledge his attempts.

" _Pikachu! THUNDER SHOCK NOW!"_

"WOAH!"

And what happened next cemented very firmly that this thing was NO ordinary Chao.

Sonic barely leapt out of the way of the lance of electricity. He landed a few metres away with statically puffed up fur, clenched fists and quills sticking up every which way in pure indignation.

"What the HELL, kid, are you _out_ of your-?!"

" _Oh wow, it's_ _fast_ _! Pikachu, Quick Attack! Show it what you're made of!"_

Sonic's eyes widened, as suddenly, the yellow mouse instantly seemed to disappear – and then hit him square in the chest, driving the wind painfully from his lungs. Sonic stumbled backwards with a cry, barely evading falling onto his behind, but could only watch for one, two moments as the little psycho rat returned to its human partner in crime.

" _You're awesome, Pikachu! Do it again!"_

(And no, while he still couldn't understand the words, the fact that the boy was cheering the thing on was _not_ lost on Sonic, who promised himself to think twice the next time before saving humanity again.)

Next, the yellow creature had disappeared once more, but this time, the hedgehog's eyes merely narrowed. Now that Sonic knew what the trick was, his vision, trained from landscapes moving past him at hundreds of miles per hour, could keep track of the crazy mouse easily as it was charging while rapidly changing direction so fast as to appear almost invisible.

Keyword: _almost_.

 _If you think your little critter can surpass_ _me_ _in speed, you've got another thing coming, kid_.

" _Tackle! NOW!"_ The human yelled what was obviously a command and in response, the not-chao flung itself forward at Sonic still standing in its path – only to then crash into a tree at full tilt when said hedgehog had very conveniently stepped sideways at the very last second.

" _NO! Pikachu!"_ Sonic wasn't entirely sure what was up with the human now, but he sounded distressed as he ran toward his pet.

 _His own damn fault if he makes it attack people. What on Mobius did he_ _think_ _would happen?!_

The yellow Chao mouse seemed to be dazed, but okay, though, so Sonic thought he could once more try and make himself understood, despite the lack of common language.

"Hey! Stop! Fighting! Me!" he yelled, accentuating each word with appropriate and expressive gestures to get his point across. But the kid didn't seem to pay him much attention, only agitatedly fussing over his mouse and then turning around again on his knees when it seemed to recover.

" _Pikachu! You can't beat it with pure speed, let's try the electricity attacks again! Spread them wide! Thunder, NOW!"_

" _Chuuuuu!"_

Sonic barely had time to wonder whether he had just been able to hear the sound of an upset baby train, when the electricity already hit him full force.

"AAAAAH!"

His entire body spasmed as the air around him crackled with sparks, and he couldn't do anything but scream with agony – Sonic had often been electrocuted before, of course (Robotnik and a certain pirate captain being the chief offenders, and sometimes one of Tails' 'brilliant' inventions as well...) but it never was any less painful.

After a few seconds of searing hurt, the hedgehog collapsed onto the ground, his body reeking of electricity and burned fur. Face buried in the dirt and blue ears twitching in pain, Sonic thought he could hear that human brat now being quite cheerful, though.

" _Awesome, Pikachu, you did it! We've got a new Pokemon!"_

 _"Pi-pikachu!"_

"Okay, I've had it up to _here_ with you now!" Sonic jumped to his feet again, now truly angry. Both of them looked up again, obviously surprised.

If this had been any of Egghead's inventions, they would by now have been sliced in half. Even Shadow or Knuckles, if they had repeatedly attacked Sonic without explanation would have been on the receiving end of a few vicious high-speed kicks. The boy was only a kid, however, perhaps 10 or 11 years at the most, and his yellow pet thing also looked considerably smaller and younger, which was mostly why Sonic hadn't yet felt inclined to actually attack it - much as he was riled up, so far he hadn't wanted to accidentally _seriously_ injure either of them. But now he thought at least the mouse thing could actually use some sort of wake-up call.

Next, the yellow critter appeared honestly surprised as its blue opponent had gotten up so quickly, and had also zipped immediately in front of the two. A squeak escaped its mouth as Sonic reached down and roughly yanked it up by the neck fur, rudely shaking it to a satisfying squeal. A gloved finger appeared in front of its button-nosed face as Sonic snarled.

"Okay, _buster_ , listen. If you think of causing _any_ more trouble at all, I _swear_ I will-"

" _Piiii...kaaaa...!"_

Of course, when the ear-deafening electric shock nearly blew Sonic's brains out a second later, he also realized that picking up the little freak had been a really bad idea.

" _CHUUUU!"_

" _Aaaaaaaaaaah!_ " Sonic screamed even louder than before as he was hurled backwards and smashed against a tree, collapsing into a heap at its foot. Blearily, he could make out the rat running back to the human who had just punched the air with a fist in triumph. Sonic decided he'd have to make him eat his stupid cap later just for that. His whole body hurt and he wasn't sure whether he wouldn't faint if he let that pocket-sized monster shock him again - and what would happen if it did. What did that freak even want with him, kill him? Capture him? ( _Eat him? a_ slightly woozy part of his brain suggested). Sonic decided he didn't want to find out.

" _That was fantastic, Pikachu! I'm so proud of you! Now, let's catch it and take it back to Professor Oak so he can examine it!_ " To Sonic's ears, the boy was babbling cheerful nonsense again, now also digging in his lime-green backpack for something. " _Just gotta find a Pokeball now, I_ _really_ _didn't expect to find anything new in Viridian Forest..."_

" _Pika, pika, pikapi!"_

" _Huh? What is it?_ " the human asked, looking up as his pet was suddenly anxiously tugging at his pant leg, pointing toward something. " _Something wrong, Pika-?"_

" **YOU, human, picked the wrong hedgehog to mess with.** _"_

The boy gasped as he suddenly beheld the scorched, panting, blue-furred creature who had been near unconscious just a moment ago not two metres away from him, emerald green eyes narrowed to blazing chips of gemstone blade.

" _What-?!_ " the kid's eyes widened, obviously still not being able to make out a word the monster had said, but nevertheless understanding very easily that it was very, _very_ angry.

" _Impossible, how can it have so much_ _stamina_ _-?_ " he breathed as he reached for one of the other balls on his belt, but never managed to touch them. Suddenly, the blue creature was gone and almost as suddenly reappeared behind him, twisting the boy's arm onto his back.

"Oh no. Whatever it is you're trying to do, forget it."

" _Pi – ka -!"_

"Think third time's the charm? Better think again," Sonic said and then, in the single moment before the yellow thing could attack, shoved its human friend straight into the shock.

Interestingly enough, he screamed not quite as much as Sonic had when he collapsed.

" _Not..._ _again_ _..."_

The yellow mouse squealed as its owner hit the floor, patted his face frantically for one, two heartbeats, and then, much like it had just ascertained that the human was still alive, faced Sonic with all of its little fangs bared.

" _Pi. Ka._ _CHU_ _."_

If Sonic hadn't known better, he would have thought he had just been on the receiving end of a death sentence.

"Hey, don't pin this on me, you li'l monster. If _you_ hadn't tried to shock me-"

" _CHUUUUUUUUU!"_

"AGAH!"

Sonic barely leapt out of the way of the thunderbolt as he became increasingly aware that he had apparently just pushed some electric mouse berserk button.

" _Chu! Chu! Chuuuuu!"_

"STOP IT! Yeesh!" Sonic wasn't entirely sure whether the thing was commanding him to masticate, but he also didn't fancy much the option of finding out by slowing down. He was currently zipping about the clearing, dodging crackling electricity left, right and center, and wondering whether he shouldn't just give up and run for the hills in the hope of perhaps finding some other people that weren't quite as insane.

"Pika- _chu!_ "

And then, even that option was taken away from him, when just for a moment, the yellow mouse had emitted a sort of flash so bright, it was blinding. Sonic yelped and covered his eyes, for a second as disoriented as a newborn.

 _Where on Mobius am I, this shouldn't be happening-_

"You...little...!" he groaned, trying to open his eyes again and see something else other than the silhouette of a tiny, long-eared monster mouse permanently seared onto his retinas – and then got his wish granted, when then the first thing he saw was _another_ wave of electricity, far too wide and broad to dodge, rushing toward him. Sonic froze.

Too high too jump. Not enough time to run in his state.

 _Only one thing for it._ Sonic raised his hand, praying this would work.

Chaos energy was dangerous when harnessed for an attack, often near uncontrollable, and incredibly disruptive. Sonic was by far not as good at wielding it as Shadow, and therefore he disliked using it for offence extremely – but he could.

"SONIC WIND!" the blue hedgehog yelled the words, at the same time throwing his arm forward and releasing a blue whirlwind of energy that disrupted the electricity wave rushing toward him and scattered it harmlessly – but then it didn't stop going and almost hit the (now sitting, but still groaning) boy on the other side of the clearing.

Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as it impacted only against the tree next to him – and then, of course, nearly choked on that same sigh when said tree immediately reacted by dropping a giant branch on top of the kid.

" _PIKAPIIII!"_

The mouse was going to kill him.

 _To be continued..._

* * *

There, hope you liked! Questions, suggestions and comments about your fav bits welcome. If you read, please review! :D


	3. Encounters of the Sticky Kind

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

 **Guest:** Yeah, I figured it would be fun to play with the language barrier! :) I'm not sure whether Ash is speaking Japanese (seeing as I chose to go with the English names instead of calling him Satoshi) but yeah, they're definitely both speaking a language that doesn't exist on the other's respective planet. As for what the others are up to, well this chapter features the first glimpse...;)

 **LoneGarurumon:** (Digimon fan reviewing a pokemon crossover, eh? ;p) Heh, thanks for your first review! :D And yeah, some writers have anonymous reviews disabled, but I definitely welcome them :) I just have to write my replies here instead of in a PM...and yeah, as always, life was crazy busy, but now it's summerrrr break and I've had this fic sitting on my laptop for ever. Glad you like it, hope you enjoy the new chapter, too!

 **Matrix the Hedge** : Here you go! :)

 **CuzImCoolBro:** Oh boy, did he ever. Not that it's gonna get much better, though XD Now if they could actually _get_ to that translator...;p

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Encounters of the Sticky Kind**

"NO!"

 _"Pikapiii!"_

Sonic's eyes went as wide as the boy's when the branch crashed down on top of his head and the child immediately crumbled. That hadn't been the plan.

The yellow mouse was already racing toward the fallen boy, fight with Sonic forgotten as soon as its... _owner? Friend?_ Sonic had no idea about their relationship, but it was obvious that there seemed to be a very definite loyalty between them, judging by the desperate demeanour of the pet now. Sonic cautiously approached the pair, just a remnant of carefulness in his movements in case the little yellow mouse was now suddenly bent on revenge, but that didn't seem to be the case.

" _Piiiii-! Piiii-!"_

Instead, the boy's pet was now rather desperately heaving at the big branch on top of the human, its entire tiny body trembling with effort, ears and tail upright and vibrating with strain as if even they were pulling. In fact, if there hadn't been a person buried beneath the branch, Sonic supposed it would have looked rather comical.

" _Pii...pii..."_ now the thing was panting, though, ears and tail drooping, the tree not having budged much. Sonic realized that for all the fighting power the little mouse packed, this apparently didn't translate into physical strength.

He sighed.

"That ain't working. Lemme try."

At the sound of his voice, the creature immediately whirled around, growling at him on all fours, tail threateningly waving as it built itself up protectively between Sonic and the human kid, even if it was obvious by how exhausted it was that it wouldn't stand a chance in a continued battle

" _Pika...pikachu...!"_

Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Oh for Chaos' sake, I'm trying to _help_ you! I don't leave someone to die even if they attacked me, okay? Damn, you should be glad you ran into _me_ instead of Shadow..." Sonic grumbled the last bit under his breath, only briefly wondering where, indeed, his friends had landed (if they had come with him at all). He wasn't overly worried, though – Sonic trusted that all of them were capable enough to look after themselves for a while, and it was his principle to deal with whatever was directly in front of him instead of worrying about other things.

"Let me help him? Please?" Sonic tried, and even while the yellow mouse still looked at him suspiciously, it still edged slowly to the side, probably reacting more to his tone than to his words, Sonic thought. He bent his legs – that's where the real power for this would have to be coming from, anyway - grabbed the main branch with both hands and heaved. The branch crashed to the side.

" _Pika!"_

The little mouse immediately bounded over to the head of the unconscious human, who fortunately didn't look too bad, no injuries visible at first glance, and was also breathing steadily.

" _Pik! Pik! Pik!"_

Sonic raised an eye ridge as the first action of the yellow thing was to lift up the much larger human's head by his bangs and start to ineffectually swat at his cheek with his other front paw. Once again, the action could have looked comical if Sonic hadn't been seriously concerned for the boy's health.

"Stop that. We need to check for injuries." So saying, he grabbed the pet-thing unceremoniously by its tail and lifted it up to place it two feet away so he could get a look at the injured human.

" _Pika?!"_

The mouse reacted first with a squeak of surprise at the handling, and then immediately rammed its little fists into its sides and glared up at Sonic, looking for a moment so puffed up with injured dignity that the hedgehog briefly wondered whether next would come the retaliation. But then it fortunately deflated again, apparently understanding that right now the hedgehog wanted to help. At least, Sonic supposed it trusted him now, seeing as it let him this close to its injured master/friend/Chaos Knows What when he was injured.

"Right..." Sonic scratched his head as he took stock of what he could see. He was no doctor, knew less about medicine than Tails, but he was proficient enough in First Aid – you had to be, in battles.

 _Even if I've hardly ever tended to an injured human._

Nevertheless, Sonic took his pulse (it was slow, but then humans generally had a slower one than Mobians) checked his breathing, felt for broken bones, and when all seemed to be normal, rolled him on his side into a stable position and breathed a cautious sigh in relief. Next, he carefully took off the boy's baseball cap, also intending to look for a head injury and grimaced slightly when he found it. There was blood leaking out through the bushy black hair and Sonic's snout briefly crinkled as it seeped into his glove when he felt for and confirmed the swelling around the wound.

But still. The boy's temperature was normal, he wasn't sweating or pale, and was breathing normally, so Sonic assumed that for all that had happened, it seemed like he would be okay in the end. Sonic stood up.

"Well, that's that, I guess," he said, addressing the yellow mouse while dusting off his hands. "I'll leave you to it. He'll wake up eventually."

" _Pika?"_ The mouse blinked at him. Then it reached out a furry little paw and took hold of the cuff of Sonic's sock.

"Er, what? Look, buddy, I would love to stay and chat, but-"

He tried to turn away, free his foot from the grasp of the creature, but all at once, its noises now actually turned panicky and it started to babble.

" _Pika! Pika-pikachu, pikapi, pika-Chu-!"_

"Look, whatever language you speak, it isn't mine!" Sonic snapped, even if it was increasingly obvious what the monster wanted.

 _Please help my friend_.

" _Piiii-kaaaa-!_ " it then started, electricity beginning to crackle around its strange, red-painted cheeks, but green eyes abruptly narrowed.

" _Stop_ that. Threatening me isn't making me any more likely to help you," Sonic snapped. „'sides, you should know you can't hit me. And now if you'll _excuse me_ , there are lost friends of mine and..." he started to walk away as he said that, when suddenly...

" _Pi..ka..."_

the thing sounded so _pitiful_ the blue hero basically cringed in his tracks.

"What-?" Sonic turned around, looking at the spot where the little mouse sat next to its fallen friend on its hindlegs, head bent as it stared up at him pleadingly, ears folded backwards, chin trembling, tiny paws clasped over its belly, looking like the saddest little pudding in history and its large black eyes were suddenly so much bigger, and _shinier_ -

"Are you...are you _crying_?" Sonic asked disbelievingly. Could these things even _do_ that, whatever it was? And how on Mobius had this monster suddenly turned CUTE in freakin seconds...?

" _Pi..._ " it raised its little paws pleadingly toward the hedgehog.

 _Gah._

Sonic sank into a crouch, hands in front of his eyes and groaned.

"Okay, stop it. You've won."

" _PIKA!"_

And it flung itself right at Sonic to hug his knees.

 _I swear, one day this hero thing is going to be the death of me._

xxx

"Uuuuh...Sonic, I think something about that ice cream was off, I think my brain wants to crawl out my _ears_...Sonic?"

Tails was slowly blinking himself awake, mumbling into the fur of his arm as his discomfort started to make itself known to him. He then realized that far from his own couch, he was lying on a forest floor, where the ground was incredibly soggy, the trees around him where still a bit wobblier than trees generally should be, and his head felt like the Chaotix had used it as an acustic stage.

"Ugh...what happened?" Tails groaned as he tried to sit up, blinking at his surroundings. Memories were rushing back at him, and he gasped. "Egghead's base! Sonic! Everyone...!" he rapidly turned his head back and forth (which, as the immediately exploding stars behind his eyes indicated might have been a mistake...) but at last managed to scramble unsteadily to his feet. His shouts were swallowed up by the foliage without a sound. Blinking, Tails scanned the greenery around him, but there was nothing to indicate that there was anything even resembling a base near him, or any of the others he had come with to enter it this morning. Tails bit his lip.

"Shoot."

The mind of the young fox was already going through the most likely scenarios at light speed – a Chaos Control transportation most likely, to another part of Mobius, to a parallel dimension, a pocket universe, anything was possible. For some reason he had also had recurring nightmares for the past two years of just such a scenario, all of them ending in a world where some weird, brown-haired human would constantly hog Sonic's attention until the blue hedgehog wouldn't even _recognize_ Tails anymore-!

The twin-tail tried to breathe very deeply and deliberately to calm himself down.

 _No. Relax. You're almost nine now, freaking out about nightmares is something for little kids. You just need to figure out where you are and find the others. That's what Sonic would do. Yeah._

Tails exhaled, and then started deliberately walking forwards. The forest he was in was very dense, humid and slightly swampy in places, its canopy thickly threaded through with ivy, lianas and vines everywhere, so he probably would have to find a clearing or way out of the forest first before he could start flying in search of the others. The sounds surrounding him were of no help whatsoever, only the noises of insects and some birds in the distance, despite the young fox keeping his large ears pricked in all directions.

 _Oh man, I hope I'm not too lost...I don't think this is still Emerald Hill Zone, even if it looks similar…I wish there was at least any helpful hint around here where this is…_

" _Rawr?"_

"Huh?" Tails blinked, as suddenly, a small green thing had dropped down from the tree above. The fox kit stared at it with wide eyes as it uncurled and revealed itself to be something like... _an extremely oversized feral caterpillar?_ Tails wondered. By now, the insect had uprighted itself and both the little fox and the small, green creature were blinking at each other, looking slightly confused.

" _Grar?"_ the stubby little pink feelers on top of the large head and eyes of the caterpillar were twitching as if in curiosity as it tilted its head segment. _"Ronk?_ "

"Hah! Who are you, then?" Tails had to laugh a little at the human-like expression of the little insect. "I'm Tails, can you maybe help me find my friends?" he asked with a smile, even if he did not in fact expect an answer. "Can't say I've ever come across an animal like you before, though...but you _are_ kinda cute."

" _Mrrr_ ," the caterpillar replied, actually looking happy as Tails carefully stretched out a hand to tentatively give the little insect a pat on the head. If he hadn't known any better, it now sounded as if the animal was actually _purring_ as he petted it, closing its large black eyes and rubbing its head against the squatting fox' palm.

"Heh, aren't you a charmer," Tails gave the little caterpillar another wide grin, petting its head and feelers some more. "I'd honestly love to play with you some more, but I gotta go find my friends now. You take care of yourself, okay?"

" _Mrrra,_ " replied the insect cheerfully – and then proceeded to spit a whole load of sticky stuff right at Tails' face.

" _Ronk!"_

"GAH!" Tails reared backwards in shock, flailing to keep his balance and claw at his face at the same time – it was some sort of webbing, clinging to his eyes and partially obscuring his vision.

"What the heck, what are you-?! AH!" he stammered, but then yelped again as the caterpillar had now leapt forward and sprayed the stuff at him _again_ , letting his hand now stick to the side of his face.

"NOmpf!" Tails yelled, but didn't get far until the third shot of spray hit him, and this time straight across his mouth. Blue eyes were widening in panic as the (now decidedly less cute and more disturbing) caterpillar-thing was leaping toward him with increasing enthusiasm.

" _Arrr!"_

"S-shtay amway!" Tails cried through the sticky webbing still gluing his hand to his mouth. Blindly, he stumbled backwards, and then yelped as he promptly fell over something.

"What-?!"

" _Metapod_ ," the green, two-eyed alien lump on the forest floor his feet had caught on informed him. Tails screamed again.

 _Oh gods. Oh gods. What the hell, oh gods._ The young fox was now frantically trying to upright himself again, get onto his feet with one arm still immobilized against his face that had just been rolled through the soggy earth, mud now caking his formerly white and golden fur.

" _Rrrru_! _Rrru_!" To his horror, there were now _more_ of the green caterpillar-things starting to crawl out of the bushes, or lowering themselves from the tree above like spiders, soon also joined by a yellow, _horned_ variant. Tails had barely gotten to his feet again, heart racing as he was stumbling away, desperately looking for a way away from this place as he was rapidly becoming surrounded, more creepy-crawlies descending from strings even from above. One of the yellow monsters reared up as he tried a step in its direction.

" _Wheedle_!"

"OW!" Tails howled in pain as the horned worm had actually _shot_ something at him and hit him straight in one of his namesakes. The appendage abruptly started to go numb. And Tails decided to abandon ship and panic for real.

"N-no! Help! _SONIC_!" the fox screamed, trying to whirl around and escape the clearing now crawling with bugs, but as soon as he had turned around the way he'd come, there was a giant, angrily buzzing _bee_ in his face, and then another painful sting hit his thigh, and his knee buckled, sending him sprawling onto the moss-covered, slippery ground.

"AH-!" The breath was driven from his lungs at the impact, so even his cry became more of a hacked cough. Tails threw his head back, looking up at the insect monstrosity hovering above him in terror. Red, multifaceted eyes were staring back down at him utterly without mercy, and, sweet Chaos, its upper legs ended in the biggest _stingers_ Tails had ever seen. Now it was lifting one of them.

 _This can't be real._

The little fox by now felt like he was trapped in a nightmare. It was only his fast reflexes from years spent adventuring with his older brother that saved him as he twisted himself sideways on the ground and the stinger of the bee-zilla impacted into the earth where he had lain a second ago.

" _Beee!"_

"HELP!" Tails yelled again, flailing to get to his feet with one paralyzed leg and one uncooperative tail while from all sides the caterpillar-things were already advancing on him, nudging their heads against his prone body, _nibbling_ at him in Tails' panic-addled mind, and _then_ they started spraying, immobilizing his lower limbs and gluing his arms against his sides, enveloping him into an ever harder sticky cocoon, and suddenly there was a pull at his feet, and what had to be the wrathful bee-goddess of the insect horde was starting to pull him upwards, into the trees, probably into their _nest_ , Tails thought, and it was at this point that he actually started screaming his head off like he had never before in his life.

 _To continued..._

* * *

There you go, hope you liked! As for Tails' fate, well this IS a Taranea-fic, so really, poor guy should be expecting it at this point...;p Still, hope you're having more fun than he is, and if you read, please review! :D


	4. Lost In Translation

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

LoneGarurumon: Oh, for sure :) I have multiple fandoms as well, hence all the crossovers I love to write :p Glad you like this one! :D

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Lost in Translation**

Sudden freefall.

Amy screamed. She had no idea what had just happened, could just remember her hand being torn out of Sonic's in an incredibly bright _explosion_ that had felt like it had ripped her apart, only for her to get snapped back together again a split second later. The world had snapped back, too, but it now looked...entirely different.

Amy's eyes grew wide as she realized she was now inside a building, about 30 feet in the air, and was also now hurtling downwards toward what seemed to be a giant indoor swimming pool.

There was a somewhat higher-pitched scream, that coincidentally perhaps sounded a bit like 'This isn't Sonic EEEEEEEEEEX!" and then there was giant _splash_! and Amy Rose the Hedgehog impacted the water at the Cerulean City Gym with a fountain to be seen.

xxx

Somewhere else, the hero of Mobius and his newly-found electric friend were proceeding at a much more sedate walking pace, but also leaving the forest, which Sonic on a very instinctive level did not feel that comfortable with. It had been a long time ago since Mobian hedgehogs had evolutionally split from their feral ancestry, but some basic impulses like the need for cover in unknown surroundings persisted. But Sonic currently also had no choice but to follow the lead of the yellow pet thing, and so he prayed that it at least wouldn't be too long until they perhaps met some other people that would hopefully be helpful and relieve him off his burden.

" _Pi-ka, pi-ka, pi-ka..."_

In front of him, perhaps in a bizarre manner intending to give them a rhythm to walk to, said yellow pet thing was walking on its two legs in front, holding the unconscious boy's ankles over its head, while Sonic had his hands under his armpits at the rear, supporting the kid's upper body and carrying the brunt of his weight. There had been a footpath actually quite close to the clearing that the critter had led them to, and now it was leading out of the foliage of the trees and into a wide array of fields and grass meadows. Sonic's eyes immediately zeroed in on the building amid them, a sort of two-storey farmhouse with a red roof and a large wind turbine on top of it. As soon as it came into sight, the yellow mouse had already dropped the boy's ankles and was now racing on all fours up the path to the entrance of the house.

"Hey, wait-!" Sonic called out, still effectively hindered from moving by the torso of the boy in his arms and he could only watch as the mouse didn't stop running until it almost collided with the wooden door, then proceeded to bang its tiny fists against it.

" _Pika! Pikapi, Pikachu!"_

" _Pikachu-? What...? ASH!_ " As Sonic watched, the door had already opened, and a middle-aged human man in a white lab coat had stepped out, first staring down in confusion at the little creature, but then his eyes widened in shock as he looked up and beheld the hedgehog and his injured cargo.

" _Pikachu! What happened?!_ " The man was shouting some more (but, the hero of Mobius realized with a sinking feeling, just as incomprehensible things) as he and the mouse creature were now running back toward Sonic in obvious agitation. The blue hedgehog was actually not altogether too happy as he saw the second human approaching, having no idea what they would think of Sonic's involvement in the accident of the boy, but unfortunately Sonic also couldn't very well drop the little psycho and give him a second concussion.

" _Oh no, Ash, what happened to you-?!"_ The man, perhaps a doctor (judging from the white labcoat), bent down and immediately hoisted the kid up in his arms, still talking – before he then froze, and seemingly beheld Sonic for the first time.

" _Wait, who are YOU?"_

"Uh..." Sonic, sensing that he was suddenly the new topic of interest but not appreciating it, tried to back away, gesturing with hopefully placating open palms. "Look, I just wanted to get your kid home safe, _I_ didn't pick the fight-"

" _Incredible!_ " The man yelled something and then grabbed Sonic by the arm, (thereby also very unceremoniously dropping the injured kid). _"You're a new Pokémon! And so close to my home!"_

For some reason, the hero of Mobius just had the worst sense of déja vu.

 _Great, any moment now he's gonna fling mutant yellow rats at me, too._

"Uh, look, glad to help you and all-!" Sonic tried, attempting to suppress the slight panic in his voice, and still trying to pull his arm free, but the man was by now also grinning like a maniac and seemed to possess far more strength than he should have.

" _You helped Ash, didn't you? How wonderful! Come inside, you will need to be studied immediately!"_

"Argh!" Before Sonic could say anything, he had already been yanked off his feet (cursing humankind and their ridiculous size) and, wondering where the hell the older man got the energy or strength from, was pulled into the house by him, sneakered feet dragging behind, the scary scientist guy apparently also considering Sonic a lot more interesting than any hurt and bleeding kids of his own species.

" _Chansey! Please take care of Ash, he's outside!"_

The man still hadn't released him, but was now shouting something else, sounding like he was calling for someone. Sonic looked around, already tensing up, wondering whether this crazy person was perhaps actually trying to arrest him for bringing the injured kid home and was now calling reinforcements. He would need to get out of here _before_ that happened. Unwillingly, he turned his head into the direction the human had called, wanting to see what he could be up against...

...and then almost jumped into his captor's arms in shock.

"What the hell is THAT?!"

" _Huh? Oh, hey, there's no need to look so scared,"_ the man in the labcoat was now looking down at Sonic, who had jumped up and curled all of his limbs around the human's forearm, green eyes wide and terrified.

Next, Sonic was surprised when the human actually laughed and patted him on the head with his free hand.

" _There's no need to worry, sport, that's just Chansey, my medical assistant,"_ he spoke something in a soothing tone and gently lowered the arm Sonic was still clinging to, setting him on his feet again. _"None of the pokémon on my ranch are going to attack you, you can relax. Now, you just stay here while I get my equipment..."_ Another unexpected scratch of his head fur behind his ears followed, and then the human was already bending down and retrieving something from a chest of drawers. Sonic blinked, and, while still not understanding the meaning of the words, he was kind of getting the impression that man was talking to him like one would to a feral dog that was having a panic attack because of fireworks. Even if he had to figure that Sonic didn't speak his language, he was still chatting away like at a teaparty.

" _No, not this, this a gardening implement, not this, that's the tea cosy from Ash's mum...now where did I put that thing again...?"_

As the man babbled, Sonic also watched the other creature that had freaked him out so much – and really, how could you _not_ freak out about something that looked like a...giant...egg-shaped...pink blob with tentacle-like appendages...- wobble past him and out the door with something that looked a lot like a First Aid kit. Sonic relaxed infinitesimally.

 _No guards, then. Just help for the kid. Good._

But this was the second weird, _weird_ creature he had encountered in the last half an hour, and together with the fact that he had now met not one, but _two_ people who didn't speak anything even remotely close to resembling New Mobian, Sonic was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that he really had _no_ idea where he was.

If this even was still Mobius.

Sonic swallowed, but then refused to start panicking. He could deal with this. The first step would have to be to find a pen and paper or something to attempt even a bit of communication, maybe draw a map or something – he let his gaze for the first time flit around to take in his new surroundings more closely. They seemed to be in a huge, open-plan laboratory of some sort, with a wide window on one wall, letting sunlight stream in. In front of it was a kind of indoor balcony. Two walls on either side were taken up by huge consoles and two research desks, and in the middle of the room also stood an old, brown sofa with several smaller, complicated-looking machines standing around it in a bit of a messy pattern. The entire area was only semi-tidy, most of the surfaces in the lab also decorated by strewn-around research papers, half-eaten sandwiches, and, for some reason, red and white toy balls.

Sonic was hard-pressed to not be reminded of the laboratory of his old friend Kintobor.

In fact, even the man in the white labcoat was currently giving off a lot of the same vibes of 'enthusiastic and friendly, but completely cloud-coockoolander scientist' that Sonic for a moment had to consciously remind himself not to get drawn down memory lane.

"Uh, listen, you wouldn't have something to write with lying around here...?" Sonic finally kicked himself into action, talking more out of habit than because of the actual hope to be understood, and he wandered over to one of the writing desks, starting to hunt around for a pen.

" _Oh hey, what are you doing? Nononono, that's NOT for Pokémon, get away from there!"_

"Wha-? Ah! Lemme _down_!" Sonic protested as he was suddenly (and not unlike he had done to the rat thing ealier, he sourly remembered) lifted from behind, two hands grabbing his sides and carrying him away from the desk. "You don't understand, I wanna – oh for Chaos' sake, you not understanding me _sucks_!" he yelled in frustration, trying to wriggle out of the human's grasp without having to resort to kicks or raising of his quills that surely would have hurt the other.

" _There you go. Now sit there nice and tight,"_ the human said, using an infuriatingly soothing tone that Sonic by now _so_ wasn't in the mood for. But instead of being able to try and write something down, he was now placed on something that looked like a cross between a sick bed and a lab table, and _that_ immediately let all of the alarm bells shrill in Sonic's head.

 _Uh-huh, no. No way. No crazy scientist is ever going to have me on their lab table again, I've had enough of that the last time Eggman caught me-!_

"Get away from me!" Sonic barked, immediately scrambling backwards along the length of the padded table. The human now looked actually surprised, only holding a stethoscope and some sort of game-boy thing (much like the boy's) in his hand, and he stared at Sonic in slight confusion.

" _No, what's wrong, I don't want to hurt you-"_ he began, sounding like he had somehow not been expecting Sonic's unhappy reaction at all. Sonic almost relaxed from the lack of hostility, now only staring back at the human in honest confusion when the other spoke again.

" _See, I only want to study you, and for that I need to scan you first."_ Next, however,he raised the red calculator-looking thing and activated it, and when he saw the blue light pointed at him, Sonic, who had seen too many laser rifles and stun guns and tazers and plasma cannons, panicked out of reflex.

"No!" he threw himself backwards, colliding sharply with the machine standing on the side of the lab table, the collision letting it hum into life, which didn't help his comfort level any. Sonic twisted himself off the sick bed, landing on his feet with natural grace and backing away.

"Listen, I don't know who you are, but the moment you point any weird sciency thingamajigs at me, I'm outta here," he snapped, already calculating on whether he would be able to zip past the human toward the front door or whether he would have to try and hurl himself out of the window.

What he hadn't been prepared for, however, was the scientist suddenly staring at him with absolutely wide eyes and dropping both the stethoscope as well as the Game Boy.

"Incredible!" he breathed, "Did you just... _speak_?!"

"Wait. _Now_ you understand me?" Sonic asked, suspiciously. The human had immediately hurried over, but to Sonic's surprise, was now not fussing over him, but over the machine Sonic had bumped against.

"My translator! It's a success!" the man exclaimed, a bright grin on his features for a moment, before it immediately transformed into a frown as he scratched his head. "But why didn't it work on the other Pokémon before...?"

"The other what?" Sonic asked, slightly bewildered. So far, nothing about this world had been making sense whatsoever, and now even with this machine apparently translating the language for him, the other was still using unfamiliar words. The human turned toward him, seeming surprised at Sonic's question.

"On the other Pokémon! On monsters like you!"

" _Excuse me?!"_

"Huh?" The scientist blinked at him as if not quite understanding the sudden bristling of spines on his visitor.

"I'm not a monster! I'm a _hedgehog_!" Sonic protested. " _You're_ the freakishly tall furless weirdo..."

The human cocked his head, apparently not having heard the last sentence. "A hedgehog? You mean you're a hedgehog Pokémon?"

"No!" Sonic could feel himself getting frustrated again. "Just. A hedgehog."

"But...hedgehogs are small. And brown. And..." the man gave Sonic a brief once-over, "...usually don't wear sneakers."

This, of course, prompted a roll of green eyes. "Well, _feral_ ones, duh. I'm a _Mobian_ hedgehog. Haven't you ever -?"

Sonic stopped himself. Suddenly his throat had become as dry as parchment. Slowly, he levelled a _very_ worried stare at the human.

"...um. This still _is_ Mobius, right...?"

And when the man in the lab coat then assumed a very puzzled expression and only asked "Mobi-what?", Sonic suddenly also felt very, _very_ alone.

 _To be continued..._

* * *

 _Next player added to the mix, hope you liked! :D And yeah, I know that a few of you are probably waiting for the *other* stories to be updated as well, and rest assured, I'm working on them! Thanks for sticking around :) Hope you're also all enjoying the last remnants of summer and if you read, please review!_


	5. Brave New World

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

CuzImCoolBro: Oooh, it definitely has. Please read on to find out how much worse it can get, though. XD

Purplez the Ink: Welcome to Taranea fanfic-land, where we serve cliffhangers for breakfast! :p

Lone Garurumon: Yeeeeah, it's definitely one of my fav tropes, that's for sure. XD I like modelling my Sonic after the Sonic I read in JudasFm's fanfics, who definitely has been through some stuff thanks to Robotnik, but most of the time still manages to keep his optimism and happy-go-lucky attitude intact. :) And no worries, my stories will likely always be funny, humour is what I live off of. ;)

John: Yeah, characters in my fanfics do have it rough, sometimes. XD But hey, as long as it's entertaining...;P

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Brave New World**

"AAAAAAAAAAH! HELPHELPHELP! NO! STOP! HELP! SONIC! ANYONE! OH GODS PLEASE _HELP_ -!"

Tails was screaming. He was still upside down and being hoisted bit by bit into the air by a monster bee, the forest beneath him crawling with yellow and green caterpillars and creepily staring cocoons. Upside down, it looked like a lovecraftian nightmare vision of a butterfly house, and Tails was utterly terrified of what would happen to him whenever he had been fully pulled up into the canopy.

"No...please...anybody..." Tears were now falling down his face, running up over his eye ridges, and the fox kit would just have wanted to closed his eyes then, squeeze them shut so he wouldn't have to see what would come next, which one of the big stingers of his captor would draw back to pierce his heart, or whether they would start eating him alive or worse.

"Please..." Tails whispered, and he could feel his voice growing weaker, the poison of the caterpillar stings spreading through his system, numbing him, making him want to go to sleep, and maybe it was better this way...the fox kit let his eyes fall shut.

And then he opened them abruptly when at this exact moment the clearing seemed to erupt into fire.

"Wha...?" Tails whispered the word almost soundlessly, blue eyes wide as all around him, the insects started screeching and scurrying. There had been a blast of fire as bright as the sun tearing through the forest spot, blackening the damp leaves and scorching even the glistening cocoons stuck to the trees. Above him, the bee screamed, sounding furious, and seemed to try and fly away with him, since the thread from which Tails hung in his cocoon at once started to sway wildly.

"Ahhh! _Don't drop me_!" Tails shouted, the ground beneath him suddenly looking even farther away than before, and despite the strange fondness for head-first crash-landings his hedgehog brother seemed to harbour, Tails was rather convinced that a fall from this height would surely snap his neck. Where had this fire even come from?!

" _Beee!"_ The insect monster holding him had twisted around in mid-air, and seemed to shoot something into the direction of the fire blast, a thin, stinger-like object soaring straight for a gap in between the trees. Tails could follow it with his eyes, straining to see who or what the bee was shooting at – and then gasped as the flying stinger was promptly incinerated by another burst of fire erupting from between the trees like a deadly blossom.

"Sh-Shadow...?" Tails croaked, but then, that didn't really make sense. This was honest-to-gods _fire_ , not the crackling golden energy of a Chaos Spear. And then even that thought was torn away from him as the blast of flames tore through the thread holding him, vaporizing it, and hit the bee holding him straight in its chest.

Tails dropped like a stone.

"AAAAAAH!"

The two-tail was screaming his lungs out for what felt like the hundredth time that day, but he also felt like he had a valid reason for it, because beneath him the ground was rapidly drawing closer at freefall velocity.

"AAAAA- _hurf_!"

Next, his cry was abruptly cut short as something white soared through the fire and hit him mid-flight, grabbing a hold of his cocoon and landing with him on the other side of the clearing, where he was softly dropped on the floor. Tails, having been dropped onto his belly, hadn't yet seen a glimpse of his saviour, but the insects definitely seemed to have. Out of the corner of his eye he could see them scattering away like cats from the wielder of a water hose, scrambling into the foliage as fast as they could. Before he could twist himself around to see who or what now stood above him, there seemed to be another burst of fire from his saviour, judging by the hot air washing over the back of his neck. It sent the last insects on the branches and hanging from the canopy into hiding, and Tails finally managed to roll onto his back to get a good look at who had come for him.

When he finally did, his eyes grew wide.

" _Ninetails,"_ the nine-tailed, red-eyed, smiling golden vixen said.

xxx

"Ahhh! Herrlgl Huhrl! HELP!" Amy was sputtering, coughing water out of her mouth and lungs, while desperately trying to keep her head above the water, _completely_ disoriented. The water surface had hit her like a frying pan to the face when she'd crashed into it and there were stars in front of her eyes as she was flailing now and trying to stay afloat.

 _Ugh...oh gods...oh chaos..._ Amy was only just about beginning to get back her bearings, treading water and blinking the last, stinging chlorine drops out of her eyes, finally able to tilt up her head and look around...

It was at this point that she saw that straight in front of her, there reared a giant, near 20 feet tall blue and white water dragon, its impossibly large rectangular mouth opened wide with gleaming teeth.

Seeing the pink hedgehog in front of it, it _roared_.

Amy reacted in the only way she knew how.

It was safe to say that at the side lines, the leaders of the Azure City Gym were _very_ surprised when today's challenger's Gyarados collapsed with a single strike by a giant hammer from one of the _weirdest_ Pokémon they had ever seen.

"WhatisthatwhatisthatwhereamIohGODS-!" Amy was flailing, babbling and panicking after having fallen back into the pool, not actually looking where she was frantically paddling to any more, but rather still staring back at the monstrosity she had just hit and which now lay near motionlessly in the water, it's eyes little spirals, it's terrifying mouth still open wide. Leaping up at it with a scream and hitting it in the centre of its forehead had been an instinctive reaction, but the panic had returned with a vengeance after she had dropped back into the water, her hammer slipping from her hands and dissolving, and now the only thought she had left was to get away from this thing as quickly as possible.

"Oh gods, oh Chaos, I need to get out of here or else it's going to eat me, _where is Sonic_ , I-!"

Amy's groping hands suddenly brushed against something hard and clamped onto it immediately, the hedgehog feeling overwhelming relief as there was finally something _solid_ beneath her hands; she had to have reached the side of the pool.

She tore her gaze away from the dragon creature, looking downwards to see how she could climb out-

...and _then_ noticed she wasn't hanging onto a ladder or the pool edge at all, but instead onto a giant, staring crab monster that had just extended one of its claws toward her.

" _Kingler?_ " it asked.

Amy screamed again.

Xxx

"Um...where is this, then?" Inside the foreign lab, Sonic was now glancing around uneasily. Everything apart from the freakish creatures he had seen in the forest could have easily been part of one of the more temperate Zones on Mobius, the vegetation, farm fields and farm house, even the lab nothing that would have been out of place on several continents he had already visited. Now the human in the lab coat was looking at him, head tilted.

"Well, officially this is the Kanto region and you're on my ranch near Pallet Town."

Sonic paused. Swallowed.

"Um. And what's the name of the planet...?"

This time, the man favoured him with a very long stare.

"...you're _really_ not a Pokémon, are you?"

"Um...no. I'm a Mobian. Or you humans call us sapients...at least where I come from," Sonic explained with a frown.

"Huh. And where is that?" The human had now pulled a notepad and a pen from his pocket and was looking at Sonic, fascinated.

"Mobius. Or Earth, depending on who you ask," the hedgehog replied, still glancing around the lab somewhat uneasily. The pink blob-thing was now dragging the unconscious boy through the door, his yellow pet following. "And we don't have...pokey-things," Sonic tried to pronounce the unfamiliar word. "Where is this place and who are you?"

"Oh! How rude of me!" the man stuck out a hand at the question. "I'm Professor Oak. Curiously, we also call our planet Earth, but now that you mention it, it's probably not the most original name." He frowned. "I think I like 'Mobius' better." He gave Sonic a smile, at which the blue hedgehog cocked a slightly disbelieving eye ridge. Despite the scary introduction, the scientist – Oak – in actuality seemed to be an okay guy.

"You have to tell me all about how you got here," Oak said, turning and walking over to his assistant creature and the black-haired kid, "If you'll _excuse me just a moment, I'll just have to see to Ash-"_

"Hey! Doc!"

" _Hm_?" Oak had turned around at Sonic's call, looking puzzled. " _What did you say?"_

"You need to get back here next to the machine, I can't understand a word you're saying anymore!" Sonic gestured at the square contraption behind him (that mostly looked like a computer terminal from the moon landing as far as he was concerned). Oak blinked.

 _"What? Excuse me, I can't understand a word you're saying anymore."_

Sonic groaned.

 _How can someone be a professor and yet be so *dense*...?_

xxx

Knuckles the Echidna was currently planning Sonic the Hedgehog's demise.

This wasn't such a terribly new thing – the guardian of angel Island had, in fact, been doing so often enough for it to qualify as an actual hobby at this point – but for the past four hours he had been doing so with a renewed fervour that could have put even Robotnik to shame.

" _Sonic_..." the Guardian ground his teeth. "This is _all_ your fault for landing me in such a mess _again_ , I swear when I get my hands on you...!"

He had been walking through an unfamiliar forest for what seemed like hours by now, and he still had _no_ idea where he was. The explosion the idiot hedgehog's mission had managed to get them involved in the human Doctor's lab had felt powerful enough to have blasted them all to kingdom come, and if there was anything the echidna knew it was that if Chaos Emeralds had been involved, everyone could have ended up anywhere.

"And now it's getting dark. Absolutely _brilliant_."

The sunlight was starting to only sparsely poke through the trees now, chillier night air replacing the day's warmth. In the undergrowth, more things seemed to wake up and start stirring, but they also always conveniently vanished when Knuckles snapped his head around. He thought he had seen glimpses of the animals in the bushes, but he hadn't exactly _recognized_ anything he knew. All of this was starting to give him a bad feeling...

" _Great. Canned food_ _again_ _. All because that annoying twerp continues to blow our budget on a near weekly basis..."_

" _Ah, it's not that bad. And just think about it, when we've finally caught his Pikachu we'll be able to live like kings!"_

"Well, we're not here to capture Pikachu. Da boss said we're sapposed ta find some of da jigglypuffs living in dis forest for his insomnia."

" _Right, yeah..."_

Knuckles' eyes snapped up. In the distance, he thought he had just been able to hear voices. True, he had not been able to make out much of what they'd said, but any civilization at all would be helpful for figuring out where he was. Picking up his pace, he started to hurry toward the clearing where the noise had been coming from. Now he also thought that he was able to glimpse the shine of a fire...?

"Hey! Can you tell me where we are?"

Knuckles burst through the foliage toward the little group sitting around the fire on the clearing. Three pairs of eyes were staring at him, looking _very_ surprised, and for a moment, the echidna's face only mirrored their expression.

Knuckles thought that never before in his life had he seen a woman with such an impossible hairstyle, for instance.

"Uh," the cat Mobian with them finally said, "I don't fink dat dat's a jigglypuff, guys..."

 _To be continued..._

* * *

Aaaand that's a wrap! Hope you liked! :D (I also hope I got Meowth's 'accent' kinda right. I never watched Pokemon with English dub in my country as a kid, so what you're getting now is cobbled together from some youtube clips and a lot of guessing. XD) But hey, any suggestions will be gladly taken into account, and if you read, please review! :D


	6. Strange Saviours

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

Purplez the Ink: Eyup, cliffhangers are probably my raison d'être...I think Knuckles is gonna be my fav storyline in this. Glad you like it! :D

Lone Garurumon: Oak is my favourite ditz, so yeah. I do enjoy the 'absent-minded professor' trope a bit too much, I admit. XD

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Strange Saviours**

"Ahhh! _Get away_! Get away, you-!" Amy was already flailing backwards again, but then froze as suddenly an arm had laid itself around her chest, gently but firmly pulling her back to the surface again.

"...huh?" Blinking, wet quills still sticking to her face, Amy tried to twist to see who had grasped her. She relaxed as it became apparent that her saviour appeared to be a blue-feathered Mobian mallard, who was now swimming them both to the ladder, his strokes calm and collected.

"...oh. You're a life guard. Oh gods, thank you," Amy managed, clinging onto his arm gratefully, watching as both the crab and the dragon fortunately didn't make any moves to follow them.

"Oh wow. Thank you. Thank you so much, I have no idea what happened, I..." Amy could feel herself slightly babbling again, some tears as remnants of the spent adrenaline threatening to form in the edges of her eyes, as she had turned to look at the mallard (who appeared to be looking amused, so Amy at least figured that the immediate danger was gone). Now that she got a good look at him, he even looked... _sort of attractive, actually_ , a small part of Amy's brain noted. Mostly like Sonic and Jet in some sort of terrifying way had had a kid.

True, it was a bit strange that he seemed to have a red jewel somehow embedded in his forehead, (and also that he _wasn't wearing any clothing_ , the same small part of Amy's brain now pointed out, the pink hedgehog already able to feel the temperature in her cheeks slowly rising), but, seeing as he was still the first normal person she had seen after having come into direct contact with not one, but _two_ water monsters, Amy honestly found she didn't care that much.

Still wordlessly, the blue mallard then lifted her beneath her arms and put her onto the ladder at the side of the pool, Amy's fingers in their soaked gloves closing around the metal as soon as they could.

"Uh, thanks...listen, I'm so sorry, I have no idea how I got here-" Amy began, starting to climb up, before she paused as she beheld the (now slightly strange-looking) expression on the other's face.

"Uh, say, where _exactly_ are you looking...?"

" _Golduck..."_ the other informed her pleasantly with a grin – and then Amy blushed fiercely as she suddenly realized that the mallard beneath had been staring straight up her dress.

"What the-?!" the pink hedgehog blushed crimson, one of her hands flying downwards to pull her skirt furiously down, her emotions swaying between very familiar anger but also confusion, because she now realized she hadn't actually _understood_ the other's reply. Next, however, she was already distracted, when she saw that there were now three human girls in swim suits running toward her from the other end of the pool, shouting.

" _Golduck! Could you pull it out? What is it? What happened?!"_

" _I can see it! It's a pink Pokémon of some sort, maybe it's a Clefairy-?!"_

" _Make way, let's get it out!"_

"Uh, what?" Amy was blinking at the three girls. The blonde one of the trio, the tallest and oldest-looking, arrived first, knelt down and extended a hand to her. Amy took it out of reflex, letting the girl help her ashore as the other two arrived.

" _Good work, Golduck! Thanks for helping out!"_ the pink-haired, youngest of the three was now waving at the Mobian duck in the water, who waved back cheerfully.

" _Golduck, Golduck!_ "

Amy swallowed as it was now becoming obvious that not only this strange Mobian, but also the three humans were speaking a language completely foreign to her. By now, all three of the young girls had started to crowd around her, looking at her with large eyes in (for humans, anyway) rather unusual colours.

" _Hey little one, where did you come from?"_ the blonde one was addressing her in a friendly voice, asking what sounded like a question. Amy only blinked as she was still unable to understand even a word, but at least could make out that they seemed honestly concerned.

" _Oh dear. She must belong to someone, but the challenger said he didn't know her and I have no idea how she could have gotten into our pool..."_ The pink-haired, youngest girl was looking at Amy while scratching her head.

" _She?"_ The one sporting blue hair and wearing a green swim suit, her age somewhere in between the other two, threw the smaller girl a look. Amy wondered perhaps whether they could be sisters, since apart from their hair and eyes their behaviour and facial features sure seemed similar enough.

" _Well, she_ _looks_ _like a girl pokemon..."_ the youngest of them trailed off.

Amy mostly stood there, dripping, her arms hugging her torso, aware that she was utterly out of her depth.

"Uh..."

" _I...don't think she's a water Pokémon, guys,"_ the blue-haired girl was saying something, looking at Amy like she had finally reached a conclusion. " _She looks really uncomfortable. We should get her somewhere she can dry_."

" _Should we take her to a Pokémon centre?"_ Now the blonde seemed to be suggesting something, before abruptly turning away. _"I'll tell the challenger that the gym is closed for today, anyway. One moment."_

Amy's head turned as the blonde was suddenly hurrying away to another human standing at the further edge of the pool, who also seemed to be a calling out to the unconscious water dragon. _"Alright, she needs to dry and get out of her clothes_ ," the pink-haired girl said at this point, indicating something to her probably-sister, _"I mean, look at the cute dress her owner put on her, I don't think she's a fighting Pokémon at all."_

" _She *just* defeated a Gyarados with a_ _single attack._ " For some reason, the blue-haired girl's reply sounded rather flat.

" _Uh. Right. Perhaps a_ _good_ _thing that she doesn't seem to be a fighting pokemon, then...?"_ The younger one gave her sister a lop-sided grin as she rubbed the back of her head, and Amy once again only wished that she _understood_ what the heck was going on, when the blonde one was already returning.

" _Fighting Pokémon or not, guys, we should get her dry and warm. Hey, you, come along, okay?"_

This last bit seemed to have been addressed to Amy again, because the oldest girl was bending forward slightly and extending a friendly hand toward her. Amy couldn't help but feel reminded of the human foster mothers at the orphanage she had grown up in – they _had_ generally treated her well, so now she gladly took the proffered hand, taking refuge in something familiar even if she had still no idea where she was. The blonde girl smiled at her, and, slinging a slightly wet towel around her neck, started to walk off to a door, leading Amy and her sisters along.

Walking through the door, they actually seemed to end and up in what looked like normal human house of all things, for some reason directly attached to the giant indoor swimming pool. Amy was gazing around in slight amazement at what seemed to be a carpeted corridor, walkways leading off into a living or dining room standing halfway open.

" _Here, you need to get dry,"_ the blonde girl was saying now, putting the towel she'd grabbed on the floor beside Amy. _"First, let me get that soaked little dress off you-"_

"Ah! What?!" Amy yelped as there was a hand suddenly grabbing onto the rim of her clothing and made an attempt to pull it up. "Stop that!" The pink hedgehog immediately swatted the human's hand away and took a defensive step backwards, pulling the hem of her wet dress down firmly. "I can do that by myself, _thank you!_ "

When all three of the girls only seemed to look at her in mild confusion, Amy let her gaze quickly travel around the corridor until to her relief her eyes locked onto a door that looked like an entrance to a bathroom. Nimbly, she snatched the towel from the floor, and then quickly walked into there, shutting the door with determination.

Still in the hallway, two of the girls stared after her, looking slightly flabbergasted, but the youngest one could only burst into laughter at her sisters' expression.

" _Well guys, looks like we caught ourselves a grown-up Pokémon!"_

xxx

"Hmm, okay. So, apparently we need to be close to the translator for it to work. I'll have to make it a portable version if you're going to be here longer," Oak said, scratching his head after he had heaved the boy onto the medical bed he had earlier tried to place Sonic on. The kid's pet mouse was sitting next to its owner's head attentively, while the pink thing was cheerfully humming something and placing a wet cloth on the boy's forehead.

"But first things first. What is your name?" Oak asked, bent down somewhat closer to Sonic's eye level, note pad once again at the ready.

"Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. But-"

Oak scribbled onto the paper. "ASSFACE. Right."

" _Excuse me?!"_ Sonic stared at him. "What did you just say?!"

"Errr...'Sonic'. That's your name, right?" Oak blinked at him, seeming a bit surprised at his visitor's sudden offended expression. At his reply, though, the hedgehog's anger melted into a more confused frown.

"Um...yeah. But I thought I'd just heard you repeating something else."

"Hmm. Must still be a few kinks in the translation there." Oak frowned at the machine, rubbing his chin. "But nothing we can't work out - if you would like my help with anything, that is. I'd gladly provide you any assistance I can."

"...thanks, doc." Sonic managed a smile. He knew he'd have to start figuring any number of things soonish, and a science-type helper in those kinds of situations was always a great start. "I'll have to check whether any of my friends also came with me to your world and then figure out a way to get us back. If you wanted to help with that, that'd be cool."

"My pleasure," Oak assured him. "Can I ask you a few more questions meanwhile? This is really quite fascinating to me."

Sonic, hopping up onto the bed next to the kid's feet again, shrugged. "Sure. Fire away."

"Thank you. Uh, first, actually..." now Oak actually seemed a bit embarrassed, before he then bent forward until his own nose was only inches apart from Sonic, staring at the hedgehog with squinty eyes.

"Are you a boy or a girl?"

xxx

 _Is this real?_

Tails was staring up into the slender face of the fox above him with eyes as wide as power rings. She seemed to be a cross between a feral and a fantasy creature, far larger than any animal fox Tails had ever seen in his life. The nine tails swishing majestically behind her also definitely marked her as a being that could not have hailed from this world.

Well.

That and the fact that not two minutes ago, she had been spewing freaking _fire_.

"Who...who _are_ you?" Tails managed to croak, staring up at the larger fox, dumbstruck and still unable to move. For her part, the white-gold vixen now simply cocked her head, gleaming red eyes seemingly considering the confused fox boy before her. Then she seemed to come to a decision and started to hold him down with her forepaws, while also beginning to bite through the cocoon.

"Woah! Careful, please!" Tails called out, startled to have the vixen's teeth suddenly so close to his belly, but more than glad to feel how the threads tore under her bites and his legs and arms were finally able to move again.

"Thank you," Tails managed with a timid smile as the other fox had sat back again, now once more seemingly studying him as he sat up and tried to massage feeling back into his numbed leg and tail.

" _Ninetales_ ," his saviour replied, a strange sound for an animal, Tails thought, but now it actually sounded amused. Then, something else seemed to catch her attention and she stood up to poke her snout at his namesakes that the fox kit currently had put across his knees, first touching one, then the other.

" _Ninetales?"_ looking back up, she cocked her head at him, now seeming genuinely puzzled.

"What? Are you surprised I only have two?" Tails asked, his lips twitching. "That's twice as many as everyone else I know has," he pointed out, feeling a bit strange to talk with a fox creature that he wasn't even sure understood him. She _sounded_ different than the feral foxes he had encountered, but it definitely wasn't any language he recognized, and whatever she was, she wasn't a Mobian.

"Thank you for the save, again," Tails managed, heaving himself to his (still slightly wobbly) feet with effort. "Do you maybe also know the way out of this forest?"

" _Ninetales?"_

"Yeah, that's what I figured," he replied with a weak smile. "I'll try to find my own way as soon as I've got the feeling back in my tail. Wish me luck, okay?" So saying, Tails lifted one hand to briefly pat the white-golden vixen on her head, and then made to turn around and stride past her, to walk further along the way that he had come. The other fox was still staring at him, now looking confused.

"See you around!" Tails called, waving – and then was aware for the first time that he maybe had miscalculated somewhat here, when suddenly he was tackled back to the ground.

" _Ninetales!"_

"Omph!" Tails exclaimed as he hit the forest floor for the fourth time that day and then immediately tried to twist around under the larger fox' paws, who was staring down at him, looking agitated.

" _Ninetales!"_

She also appeared to be trying to tell him something.

"Uh, I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean-" Tails tried, now also slightly worried as he was trapped _again_ by some strange creature and didn't have an inkling on what to do about it.

" _Ninetales..."_

"Wha- _oh_!"

And then, Tails' eyes abruptly widened as the fox above him first rolled her eyes, and then promptly dipped her head downward to lift him up by the fur of his neck between her teeth.

" _Mimetalef,"_ she informed him (somewhat muffled) and then they were suddenly already gone, the vixen leaping at incredible speeds and heights, flying away through the forest, one very confused hedgehog side-kick dangling from her maw.

 _Um. Help?_

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	7. Totally The Good Guys

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

Lone Garurumon: Never enough game start jokes. :p The answer to the Tails question is of course, because he's cuter when he's miserable, I can't help it! XD

Shadow: It may take a while, but I do have a plan, I promise. :p

 **Chapter 6: Totally The Good Guys**

 _This can't be happening._

Tails was staring disbelievingly at the forest flying past them, his saviour-slash-kidnapper, the white-golden-furred vixen leaping from boulders to branches with a speed and agility he had scarcely seen anyone display who hadn't been either Sonic or Espio. He himself could hardly move, the firm grip her jaw had on the scruff of his neck letting his limbs freeze in fetal position, an evolutionary remnant from his feral ancestry. Around them, the forest began to change slightly, turning lighter, airier and more leafy than the humid and vine-covered insect grove had been. Next, though, almost as soon as it had begun, the journey was already over and Tails was dumped unceremoniously into a clearing.

" _Ninetales!"_ the vixen barked out, her call sounding like a laugh and then Tails' eyes widened as all at once, half a dozen _more_ foxes were spilling out from a cave entrance, yipping and bounding toward them. They looked fairly different from the one that had saved him, only half as big as Tails himself and their coats a dark maroon instead of the creamy white of the nine-tailed vixen. But they, too, each sported six of their own, which probably meant that they had to be her offspring.

For a moment, the horrible thought entered Tails' head that perhaps he had just been rescued from the insects to be eaten by someone _else_ , but that suspicion was fortunately quickly dispelled when the only thing that happened was some enthusiastic licking of his face, the other little fox creatures nuzzling at his belly and chest and sniffing in enthusiasm.

" _Vulpix_!" one of them called cheerfully, burying underneath his legs when he'd tried to stand up and tumbling him a little, Tails giving a surprised laugh.

„Ahahah! Hey, that tickles!" Tails protested, barely managing to push the enthusiastic kits out of his face as they were trying to nuzzle him again and was trying to sit up, when -

"Uh...oh, hey! No! Let go of my _shoe_!" Tails yelped as he could suddenly feel happy little teeth digging into the outer layer of his right sneaker and one of the kits was now busily tugging it off, playfully growling.

"Give that back!" Tails called out, scrambling onto his hands and knees, trying to snatch at the shoe, but the little six-tail only yipped more excitedly, and leapt backwards, holding the sneaker just out of Tails' reach.

"No, look, that's not fair-!" Tails began, trying to go after the little fox as its siblings only bounced around him giddily, and he briefly looked around to see where the adult vixen was, in the faint hope that _she_ perhaps could get her kits in line, but the nine-tail actually only seemed to look on amusedly, before then abruptly taking off into the forest again.

Tails stared after her. Then he looked back again, and saw that the little shoe-thief had now managed to drag his sneaker into the cave entrance and seemed to be wagging its tails at him as if in cheeky challenge.

Tails heaved a very deep sigh.

"Oh, _man_..."

xxx

"Excuse me?" Sonic asked the question for what felt like the umpteenth time in a row, staring at the human slightly offended. "Do I _sound_ like a girl? Am I wearing a skirt?"

"Uh, no, but..." The professor now seemed highly embarrassed, developing a sweat drop on the side of his face drawn into an apologetic grin, "It's...it's just something I find _really_ hard to tell...?"

Sonic sighed. "I'm a guy, doc."

"Oh. Okay."

"Girls where I come from usually wear more clothing than shoes and gloves." Sonic shrugged. "Us dudes have it easier in that department. But what _I_ meant to ask," the hedgehog gestured at the still unconscious kid on the bed (the small yellow pet mouse now having curled up on his chest and dozing, as it was apparently clear he wasn't in any danger any more). "When I came here, little Ghengis Khan there basically all but threw his radioactive rodent at me. What the hell, are these the _manners_ in your world?"

"Ah," Oak piped up. "Well, Ash probably thought you were a Pokémon..."

"Alien here, doc." Sonic gave him a flat stare. "I still don't know what that word even means."

"...right," the human shook his head. "Well, the basic concept is simple, but..." he drew a screwdriver from his pocket. "How about a cup of tea while I try to build a portable translator and explain...?"

xxx

Two towns over and inside what had fortunately turned out to really be a bathroom, Amy was currently towelling her fur and quills dry (very carefully, since even if her shortened spikes were nowhere near as sharp as Sonic's, that didn't mean they wouldn't still shred a towel if she didn't watch out). Her wet clothes were lying on the tiled floor now, put there right next to her soaked boots, and it was only when Amy had finished drying off her short fur as best as she could, that she became aware that in fact, she now didn't have anything to put on.

Well.

It wasn't that Mobian females technically _had_ to wear anything, either, it wasn't _completely_ unusual for one to walk around in gloves and shoes like most males, but...Amy blushed. Females' fur was often more fine and slightly thinner than males' and the way it was now damp and still flatly sticking to her skin... _no,_ Amy decided very with three strange humans outside, even if all of them were girls.

 _Also_ , Amy thought, jade eyes narrowing, _I really don't think I trust that duck._

Xxx

On the clearing, Knuckles frowned.

"What did you just say?"

" _What...what on Earth is that thing?"_ the human man, who had been sitting with his back to Knuckles, had just turned around and was now looking at the echidna with an expression of astonishment. Beside him, the woman and the cat Mobian were also blinking at the new arrival.

" _Is it...a new Pokémon?"_ the impossibly-haired woman asked something, hesitantly. Both of the humans were dressed in some odd sort of white-and-red uniform (while the cat Mobian, even more strangely, didn't seem to be wearing *any* clothing). Also, they appeared to be speaking some sort of made-up language, which let Knuckles wonder...

"Are you LARPing?"

" _Meowth, what does it want? Why is it staring at us like that?"_ the purple-haired man now appeared to become definitely uncomfortable underneath Knuckles' scrutiny, shifting backwards a little.

"I don't know," the cat said, curiously replying in New Mobian despite the strange language of his two friends, his voice also weirdly more like an adult male even if he appeared to be child-sized, "I fink it has a weird accent..."

"Excuse me?" Knuckles asked with a scowl. "I'm not an _it_. My name is Knuckles the Echidna. And I want to know where we are."

"Um...it says its name is Knuckles-"

"HEY! Will you _quit_ calling me an IT?!"

The exclamation had been accompanied by a stomp and an aggressive step forwards, the echidna's fist clenched, which let the collective group of weirdos flinch and jump back.

" _Gah! Meowth, you've made it angry!"_

" _Somebody get the pokeballs, I think it's gonna attack-!"_

"Look, it's not _my_ fault, it just didn't like being called an 'it'-"

" _He_! HE doesn't like being called an 'IT'-!" Knuckles was shouting at the group now (the man of which was trying to hide behind a tree stump, the woman was digging around in a duffle bag in a panic, and the cat appeared to be trying to defend himself against something the woman had yelled at him) – before the echidna abruptly stopped himself, becoming aware of the entire ridiculousness of the situation. He took a long breath and pinched the skin above his nose.

"Okay. Let's try this again. Let's all be _civil_ , okay?" he said, his voice just loud enough that he let the two humans and the Mobian all pause. "My name is Knuckles. I'm trying to find my way back to the Mystic Ruins. Can any of you tell me what this place is and who you are?"

The three of them all gave him a slow stare. Then, the two humans apparently had reached an unanimous decision, because they at once shoved the cat abruptly forward.

" _You. Talk to it."_

" _Yeah. Make it not kill us."_

"Hey!" the cat protested, incongruously large head whipping around toward his...friends? Colleagues? Knuckles wondered. Then the Mobian faced him again, though, and cleared his throat.

"Ahem. My name is Meowth. Dey are my team pawdners Jessie and James. Dis here is Route 1, leading to de Viridian Fowest."

Knuckles' lips became an even tighter line. He hadn't heard of any region called like this ever, and because Angel Island travelled a lot of places, he had already studied a lot of maps. The 'viridian forest' hadn't been mentioned on any of them.

"Pahdon me fer sayin' so," Meowth then said, cautiously. "But ya look kinda lost."

"Yes, well, that's because I am," Knuckles replied with gritted teeth, not pleased to admit to any kind of weakness. "Which Zone are we even in?"

"Um. Dis is da Kanto region?" Meowth ventured, which, frustratingly, also didn't sound like any place he had ever heard of. Then the feline cocked his head. "But I'm not saprised ya look lost. I've nevah seen any pokemon like you around here."

"You wouldn't have," Knuckles replied in irritation, for a moment not even caring about the strange word the other had used, "I _am_ the last of my kind."

"What?!" now Meowth was staring at him with wide eyes. "Da last one?! Den you'd be incredibly rare!"

"Well, that's _one_ way to put it," Knuckles replied, now more than ever wondering into what kind of strange people he had run into here, in the middle of the night, especially now that the human man and the woman had also abruptly started staring at him at the cat's exclamation. He took a step back and turned around.

"Alright. Thanks for the chat. I'll find my own way from-"

"Wait!"

"What?" Knuckles looked over his shoulder, dreadlocks swaying. The cat had abruptly extended a hand to him.

"Don't leave! We, er, can help ya!"

" _Meowth_...?" The human man began saying something, but Meowth abruptly whirled around and hissed at him, causing him to flinch. Then he turned around to Knuckles again, though, and only had the friendliest smile.

"We are Team...er, Bucket. We specialize in gettin' lost pokemon back to deir homes! It's weally lucky ya found us here!"

" _Uh, Meowth-_ " the purple-haired guy (James, wasn't it?) began again, but, curiously, this time it was actually the woman who suddenly elbowed him into the stomach, and then also hurried forward, practically bouncing with bubbly helpfulness.

" _Why yes, of course!"_ She gave Knuckles a wide smile, bending down to eye level with him. " _We do specialize in getting lost pokemon back to their owners –_ _especially_ _such rare specimen like you!"_

"Uh..." now Knuckles was taking a step back, the attitude change of the woman having actually freaked him out a bit. He shot a glance at Meowth. "You realize I have no idea what your human colleagues are saying, right?"

"Ya don't?" Meowth appeared a bit taken aback. "Dat's weird, usually all Pokemon undastand human language..."

"Yeah, I don't understand what that's supposed to mean, either," Knuckles stated. "And how come they seem to understand what _you're_ saying, with you speaking _my_ language, but they can't understand _me_?"

"Oh," at that point Meowth's confused expression dissolved into a self-satisfied smile. "Dat's easy. I can undastand everyone and be undastood by everyone. It's my gift."

"Huh. Right," Knuckles blinked, but didn't actually think this bit too weird – he had seen stranger powers in his time.

" _Meowth! Tell him he should come with us! If we can present a pokemon that's the last of its kind to the boss then that would be even better than that brat's pikachu!"_

" _Oooh, right,_ _now_ _I'm getting it! This is brilliant, Jessie! He'll never realize where we are going until we have him under lock and key!"_

" _Exactly_ _! Ahahahah!"_

" _Ohohoho!"_

Knuckles stared.

This had mostly to do with the two humans having started shouting, laughing and then launching into a little dance routine.

Also he had the strange feeling that some sort of exposition-for-idiots had just happened, but he was damned if he knew what it had been about.

"Er..." Meowth was staring at his human colleagues with a giant sweat drop on his forehead, and then turned around to Knuckles with the most awkward smile ever.

"Yeeeeeeah...sorry about dat. Ya know humans, dey are all weird."

"Yes," Knuckles said slowly. "I'd agree with that."

"Sooo...how about ya join us fer a meal at our camp site? And tomorrow we can go and take ya home. We have a hot air balloon," Meowth said, gesturing to their fire and to what Knuckles now recognized as a deflated balloon and a basket on the grass behind it. He turned back to Meowth, frowning.

"Do you know the way to Station Square and the Mystic Ruins, then?"

"Oh, sure, sure," the cat waved him off self-assuredly, at the same time tentatively taking Knuckles' hand and pulling the reluctant echidna toward the camp fire with a wide smile. "Come and sit down, we'll have ya back home tomorrow in a jiffy..."

 _To be continued..._

* * *

Well, one fox-dinner averted, one echidnapping in progress...par for the course in Sonic-world, a world I'd gladly be inhabiting right now. Hope you liked and if you read, please review! :D


	8. A Special Kind of Hospitality

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

LoneGarurumon: Hahah, yeah, he does seem to attract those kinds of situations, huh? Buuuut, let's see how *long* they'll manage to keep fooling him, we're not eaxctly dealing with Robotnik's IQ of 300 here, after all :p And yup, for Tails it's mostly just terrible situations for now, but I personally find them VERY entertaining. XD Thanks for your review, hope you like the new chapter! :D

Shadow: Well, for me to write a chapter like this, it's around...20-30h of work? Conceptualizing a plot with a lot of characters to make sure their story lines intersect at the correct points, researching the world you're writing in, writing a draft, re-writing it, re-reading it, tweaking it, thinking of jokes, quips, funny similes and metaphors, ways to spice descriptions up...takes time. Plus, there's like 7 other stories of mine on 3 different accounts, sooooo...yeah :p

Falconess: Hahah, actually, that's my fav storyline in this fic, too, I giggled like an idiot while writing some of those parts. XD There's more to come next chapter! :D

Guest: Thanks, will do!

tr: oh, they would! Though there's probably not gonna be much in the way of legendary pokemon, I've...mostly played gen 1, ahah.^^°

Shadow Huntress: aw, thank you for the thoughtful review! :D I'm so happy this story does work without knowledge of the pokemon universe, I tried my best!

DFTS: ah, true. I needed to change that on my profile.^^° But anyway, here you go!

* * *

 **Chapter 7: A Special Kind of Hospitality**

"Your _entire_ civilization...is built on _Pokémon_." To Oak's credit, the hedgehog right now was actually looking amazed.

"Well, yes," the scientist explained with a smile. "To figure out how to live together with them and research the amazing powers they possess is my life's work and that of many others. Here you go, by the way." He held up a small, tamagotchi-like plastic device, its white casing looking orange in the rays of the setting sun falling through the window. "I finished the portable version of the translator. We could attach it to you with a collar-"

" _Or_ a wristband, doc," Sonic interjected pointedly.

"Ah, yes. Of course," the scientist cleared his throat embarrassedly. "It now also has a sending range of approximately twenty metres, so any...Mobians or humans standing in that perimeter around you should be able to understand each other perfectly."

"Cool, thanks!" Sonic smiled. When enquiring in this world about whether anyone here had seen his friends (or, perhaps more worryingly, whether anyone had seen Robotnik...) being able to talk to people would certainly help matters. True, he'd lost some time waiting for Oak to finish the gadget, but he had learned how this world was supposed to work...even if certain details were still puzzling him.

"But, er, so where _exactly_ do all these travelling 10-year-olds get their money from agai-?"

"Hello, Professor Oak! Oh, who's this?!"

"Misty!" The older human broke into a bright smile at the orange-haired girl who had just poked her head through the door in the lab. "Great that you're back! Could you and Brock get all I needed from the Pokécenter?"

"Yes, we did." A darker-skinned, slightly older boy entering the lab behind the girl replied in her stead. "But hello, who have we here? Did you find a new Pokémon, Professor?" Both of them were now staring at Sonic with undisguised curiosity.

"Not quite. Misty, Brock, this is Sonic. He is a visitor from another world," the scientist said, now assuming a lecturing tone. "He may look like one, but he is not a Pokémon. Unfortunately, Ash already made that faulty assumption earlier," he added with a wince, indicating the unconscious boy on the medical bed with his head.

For some reason, at this statement the orange-haired girl's first reaction was to immediately face-palm.

"A visitor from another world?! And the first one he meets is _Ash_?! Oh no...!" She looked over at Sonic. "Listen, whatever he said or did, we're _so_ sorry. He's one of the dumber humans alive."

"Er...it's fine..." Sonic tried, not sure whether he should laugh or try and be diplomatic here. "Listen, we only had a brief scrap, no harm done-"

"A brief... _scrap_?! ASH!" Now Misty had immediately whirled around to the hospital bed, where the black-haired boy seemed to be just regaining consciousness. "We have our first alien visitor, and you try to throw a Pokéball at his head! You _idiot_!" she shouted, now alarmingly having also lifted the groggy boy by his lapels and berating him into his face. The two males in the room, as well as curiously the yellow pet, were mainly wearing pained smiles.

"Uh, Misty, I don't think he's fully recovered yet...!" Oak tried to calm her, and Misty reacted by merely letting her victim slump back onto the covers.

"Ugh! _Boys_!" she groaned, before then whirling around at Sonic (who was by now actually considering the whole jumping-out-of-the-window-thing again, because apparently, most of the kid population of this planet seemed to be batshit insane) and smiling sweetly at him. "So yeah, sorry about him attacking you. He's an idiot. But welcome to Earth, I'm Misty!"

"Sonic. Thank you..." Sonic shook her hand cautiously, at the same time also shooting a surreptitious glance at the professor who was by now mostly rubbing the back of his head and smiling somewhat awkwardly, while the yellow mouse and the other boy (Brock?) were fussing over a slowly re-awakening Ash.

"So, you're from another world? How did you get here?" Misty asked cheerfully, and Sonic gave her a slightly embarrassed shrug, palms raised upwards.

"Er, accident really. Now I'm mostly trying to figure out whether my friends came here with me and if yes, how we are gonna get home."

"Your friends, huh?" Misty put a finger to her lips. "Do they look like you?"

"Kinda." Sonic scratched his head. "All about my size, and we're also all, uh, kinda furry compared to you. I'm looking for two more hedgehogs, one fox, and one knucklehead – I mean echidna. They probably don't speak your language."

"Hmm..." Misty ran a hand through her hair and looked at the ceiling. "I think in that case your best bet might be filing a report about your missing friends with officer Jenny. We should head to the police station in Viridian City tomorrow, don't you think, professor? Surely Sonic could spend the night here."

"Hm, yes, that sounds like a good idea," Oak agreed, currently packing the medical kit away again. "What do you think, Sonic? Shall we go there tomorrow?"

"To file a police report?" Sonic scratched his ear. "To be honest, doc, that's nice but I'm generally more of a DIY type of guy. I think I'll be good finding them on my own."

"Hm. Are you sure, though?" The older boy, Brock, had assumed a thoughtful expression (curiously _still_ without opening his eyes. Sonic thought it was fascinating). "I mean, Ash mistook you for a Pokémon and tried to capture you. If the same happened to your friends, you'd have trouble finding them if a trainer got to them first."

"If any of his friends are like him, though, I'd worry more about the trainer," Oak gave a short laugh. "When Ash tried to capture Sonic, all he got was himself a concussion."

"Hm. True," Misty said, cocking her head. "Are all of your friends as powerful as you, Sonic?"

" _Some_ of them, yeah," Sonic said, swallowing slightly. That was one thing he hadn't counted on. If they had come with him, Shadow and Knuckles would likely be fine, yeah, but Amy and Tails would be another matter entirely. True, none of them were _weak_ , exactly, but...

"Well, the thing is, if any Pokémon is caught, the Pokéball sends a signal and it gets immediately registered in the national central database under the name of the trainer who has captured it. If someone should mistakenly catch one of your friends, and there is a police report attached to their description, then we'd be notified immediately. It honestly sounds like your best bet."

"Right," Sonic replied with a mild frown. He sincerely hoped none of the others would be captured – it reminded him way too much of the old days, when Robotnik still used to put Mobians in prison capsules and then either roboticize them to use them as soldiers, or put them in robots to act as power sources – but since this seemed to be _common practice_ on this strange world, Sonic grimly supposed this was a risk he'd have to consider.

"If any of your trainers do... _capture_ my friends, are they gonna hurt them?"

"What? Oh no, no decent trainer would ever abuse their Pokémon!" Misty assured him quickly. "And if any of your friends should get hurt by accident, there are excellent Pokémon centers for them to be healed."

"Hm." Sonic pulled a slight face. The thought of sitting around and not doing anything until morning didn't sit too well with him, but, on the other hand, he wasn't sure there was a much better option available – it was slowly starting to get dark, so looking for them wouldn't work that well, and he was also starting to feel tired; the Chaos Control and the fight with Pikachu hadn't gone past his body's energy reserves unnoticed. _To catch a few hours shut-eye in a place where at least no-one will try to attack and imprison you in your sleep might not be the worst idea,_ Sonic had to admit unwillingly. When he caught the eyes of the three humans staring at his frowning expression questioningly, Sonic quickly brought himself to give them a small smile.

"Okay. Let's go there in the morning. Thanks for the offer."

"Alright!" Brock smiled back at him. "I wanted to check in with officer Jenny anyway."

"Great! That's sorted, then!" Misty clapped her hands. "So now, how about dinner? We stopped off at Ash's mum's place and brought pizza pies for everyone!"

"Did you...did you say _pizza pies_?! _"_ Heads turned at the question, and Sonic's eye ridges rose slightly, but then again, he thought he shouldn't be surprised - after all, he _had_ been caring for Tails for more than five years now, so a kid being wakened from a coma by the promise of fast food probably mostly proved that Ash was just a very normal boy after all.

xxx

When the door opened again, Daisy, oldest of the Sensational Sisters and leaders of the Azure city Gym, was the first to look up. The pink pokémon was emerging from the bathroom now, and also looking slightly awkward. Her feet were bare, one hand of hers clutching the soaked clothes and boots she had been wearing, the other protectively holding onto the comically large white towel she had wrapped herself in.

"Oh, wow, look, she's wrapped herself in that towel!" her youngest sister, Lily, turned to her with a squeal, fists curled in front of her grinning mouth. "She looks just like a little human, that's so _CUTE_!"

"Right..." Violet, ever the more reserved, mostly favoured her sisters with a confused frown. "Actually, she's really not acting like a normal Pokémon at all, is she?"

" _Um..."_ At this, the Pokémon seemed actually be trying to actively get their attention, waving her soggy clothes at them, like she was hoping that maybe some sort of message would get across here. _"Do you think you could dry them anywhere, please...? And...maybe...is there anything I could_ _wear_ _?"_ The pink Pokémon now sounded somehow hopeful, and was also slightly awkwardly tugging at the towel wrapped around her.

The sisters looked at the display.

"Huh. You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say she's asking us for more clothes," Lily finally ventured.

Violet raised an eye brow. "Hm. Well, if she's used to it...you think some old stuff of Misty's would fit?"

"You know, maybe that could work," Daisy replied. "I'll have a look. You, wait here," she said to the Pokémon, (also feeling slightly silly when making a 'Wait, please'- hand gesture like one would give to a human) and then disappeared from the room.

"Um. Let me...take that?" Lily asked then, following the cue of her sister and briefly making eye-contact with the (still lost-looking) Pokémon before she made a tentative reach for the wet clothes in her hand. It seemed to have worked, though, because the pink female at last released the dress and boots, giving a smile that still looked somewhat anxious, but was at least there.

"Here, that's the smallest outfit I could find of Misty's." Daisy had reappeared in the doorway again, turning to the Pokémon and holding up two clothing items for display. "Due to our little sister's non-existant fashion sense, it's basically completely horrible, but do you want it?"

The Pokémon at first blinked as she beheld the clothes, but then immediately nodded. The tan-furred hand that wasn't holding her towel up was extended, the clothes were taken with a grateful expression, and then the whole Pokémon promptly disappeared into the bathroom again.

The sisters looked at each other.

"Huh. Okay. Guess maybe she's a colourblind species...?"

Violet snorted. "She's got _pink_ fur and was wearing a _red_ dress. If you ask me, even Misty's clothes will probably be an improvement."

xxx

It is said that there are no atheists in a foxhole, but Tails (who, to be entirely fair, would have considered himself more of an agnostic, but still) by now would have very dearly liked to take whoever said that and make _them_ hunt for a damn sneaker in one.

"No...get back here...please, I need it, this really isn't _fair_..." Tails was stumbling and crawling after his property, absolutely _exhausted_ , as well as completely covered in earth and dirt. The cave entrance had soon branched off into an entire system of tunnels and nesting spaces, and chasing after the little fox creatures that had been playing a merry game of pass-the-parcel with Tails' shoe had been taking up the better part of two hours so far. Now, though, there was once again a melodic call of

" _Ninetales!"_ from outside, and in response, the fox kits immediately dropped the sneaker and all started yipping and racing out of the cave.

Tails felt like collapsing right then and there.

"Urgh...stupid kits...I bet Sonic wouldn't have had trouble with getting his own frigging _shoe_ back, ugh..." the two-tail grumbled as he then finally crawled over to his dropped sneaker and pulled it back on. Glad that this was the part of the cave where he at least could stand up, he then managed to shake himself and venture outside.

" _Ninetales!"_ the large white fox greeted him cheerfully, and immediately bounded over to him, leaping over her other kits that were all busily tearing at something on the ground which Tails chose not to look at too closely.

"Uh..."

" _Nine_!" There was another enthusiastic bark, and then, with a small _splat_!, the large fox let something drop in front of him. Tails screamed when he realized that it was a little body.

"AGH!"

" _Ninetales_?" Now the fox mother blinked at him, apparently a bit taken aback at the smaller fox' reaction. " _Ninetales, Ninetales,_ " she said, and then to Tails' horror began nudging the bloody thing toward him as if that somehow could make it _better_.

"Oh...gods..."

" _Ninetales."_ Now the large white fox was actually starting to look irritatedly down at Tails, in a very disturbing way her expression not too different from Sonic's when the hedgehog had often had some difficulties getting a four-year-old-Tails to eat his vegetables.

Except that in _this_ case, the 'vegetables' were a badly mangled rabbit corpse.

Even worse was that somewhere at the back of his mind, a way more ancient part of him had started to insist that it didn't actually look that bad.

"Oh...gods. Oh...hm...are you... _sure_ it's dead?" Tails finally ventured, gingerly bending over to examine the little creature in front of him. The really disturbing thing about it was that it looked like a very creepy middle-ground between a feral rabbit and a Mobian one, and Tails found himself praying to anyone who'd listen that it hadn't been a sapient creature. As it was, while its upper body was definitely that of a brown-furred rabbit, its lower half was essentially one big woolly poofy ball, giving the general impression of someone having tried to assemble a bunny, but then given up halfway through and decided to make it a sheep.

However, given that both halves were by now barely attached to each other, Tails could at least be sure that it was indeed very, _very_ dead.

" _Ninetales,"_ the fox said again, now looking stern. Tails swallowed.

"Um, look, I dunno how to say this, but-"

It was at this point that his stomach then interrupted him by giving a very loud, very drawn-out growl.

Tails scowled down at it. "Traitor."

" _Nine, nine,_ " the white vixen was now again nudging the bunny corpse toward Tails, now definitely starting to sound like a mutinous German. Tails wondered whether not eating the mutilated bunny would mean getting sent back into the cave without dinner or whether the consequences would be more dire. And then there was the fact that despite himself, he actually _was_ very hungry, and whenever that happened, the more feral instincts of his ancestors _always_ started insisting that _anything_ that had meat on it looked good...

There was another rumble from below and Tails sighed.

"Ugh. Alright, fine." _It's not like it would magically come back to life again if I refused to eat it, anyway..._

The white fox, apparently sensing that he had acquiesced to eat his dinner, then only watched him with curiosity as Tails went and gathered a few sticks from the edge of the clearing, setting them into a little pile in a carefully-cleaned spot and then also started rubbing two of them together.

"Man, Knuckles always makes this look so _easy_ -" Tails was starting to sweat as still no smoke could be seen from his efforts to start a fire after a few minutes. But there was no way around it – sapient or not, there was no way he was eating a rabbit _raw_. To his annoyance, though, all of the fox kits now seemed to have finished their meal, and had crowded around him, poking their noses close to the two sticks he was rubbing together and blinking at him with large, perplexed eyes.

" _Vulpix_?" one of them seemed to ask its mother in puzzlement, who was also watching, though she appeared curiously amused by the spectacle.

" _Ninetales. Nine, Ninetales,"_ she replied calmly, which for some reason let the fox kits suddenly seem to burst into either a yipping that curiously sounded like laughing, or barks that somehow seemed to convey disbelief.

" _Vulpix?!"_

" _Vul, vul, vulpix!"_ another one called and that seemed to let them all burst out into laughter anew. Somehow, Tails also couldn't help the impression that he was the reason for their merriment and was therefore starting to feel just slightly insulted.

"Excuse me, but could you go and...do your fox comedy or whatever it is somewhere else?!" he snapped. " _Some_ of us are working to try and prepare their food here!"

The chastisement seemed to have worked. The fox kits immediately calmed down at his dressing-down and re-assembled in their circle around them, once more watching intently, sometimes briefly shooting a glance at their mother. After another (fruitless) minute had passed, one of them cocked his head and then looked at the larger fox inquiringly.

" _Vulpix?"_ it asked. In reply, the large fox now only shook her head.

There was another moment, and now, Tails couldn't help but find that suddenly, most of them were looking at him with something that almost seemed to be _pity_. What-?

" _Ninetales,"_ the large white fox then said, gently, which caused the kit to immediately yip in excitement, leap over to stand over the dead bunny, inhale, and then blast the dead animal with fire.

When it was over, the little fox sat next to an actually delicious-smelling rabbit roast, fur burnt off more cleanly than should have been possible, and offered Tails the proudest-looking foxy grin the two-tail had ever seen.

Tails (only ever so slightly blackened at the tips of his tufts) stared.

" _Vulpix!"_ the fox called out happily, its siblings now barking in what sounded like applause and even its mother offered it a proud smile.

" _Ninetales_." Then she gave Tails an expectant look. " _Ninetales, Ninetales?"_

"Uh," the little fox managed. "Thank...you?" he asked the little fox kit, which immediately barked and began to wag all of its six appendages happily. Tails at this point decided that he had had enough bizarreness for the day and, no matter what else was going to happen in the near future, he was going to eat his weird-ass dinner now.

 _To be continued..._


	9. Not-Quite-Silent-Night

**Review Replies!**

LoneGarurumon: ah, that's EXACTLY the kind of question this fic is gonna answer! :p Amy's 'new' outfit is about to make a debut and Tails, uh...is likely enjoying his dinner. XD Glad you liked, hope you enjoy the new chapter, too!

Shadow Huntress: ah yes! (though I always think of it the other way around - Pokemon make a noise and then humans name them after that noise. :p Kind of if we called roosters cock-a-doodle-doos...on second hand we should. That would be hilarious. XD) And heh, if you don't know much about Pokemon you're discovering them together with the Mobians! That sounds like fun :) More Knuckles this chapter, thanks for the review! :D

Scot flower: True, he COULD do that...only in this universe all he'd do is likely attract a herd of excited Voltorbs or something^^° But cool idea as such! I'm not quite sure how far you can hear a Sonic boom...do you know?

Guest: Will do!

* * *

 _ **What previously happened on Catch Them If You Can!**_

 _Well, after a Chaos experiment gone awry, Sonic and Co have gone AWOL, that is, after an explosion in Robotnik's lab, Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles have found themselves on a weird, weird planet with even weirder creatures and people who don't speak their language. Sonic so far at least has made friends with the slightly strange Professor Oak, a scientist who developed a translating device for Mobian/Pokémon planet language. Tails however, seems to have been adopted by a pack of fire-breathing feral foxes and is not quite as happy with that fact. Amy has found some new friends in three human sisters and Pokemon trainers who own the giant swimming pool she landed in (though with the language barrier they can't quite make heads or tails of what she is) and Knuckles...well, let's just say that Team Rocket is in for a bit of a surprise if they intend to sell this particular 'Pokemon'..._

(Author's note:Due to the language difference, when there's no translator around like in Sonic's scenes, Pokemon characters speaking a language the Sonic characters don't understand (or vice versa) will be speaking in _Italics._ Meowth has the ability to be telepathically understood by everyone, all the time, regardless to whom he speaks.)

 **Chapter 8: Not-Quite-Silent Night**

"Whew. He's gone to sleep. _Finally._ " James leaned back on his hands, breathing a sigh of relief. By now, night had fallen dark and proper, and the sparks of their fire in the clearing were rising toward the star-dotted sky. "Sadly after eating all our food..." he hung his head with a dejected whine, rubbing his grumbling stomach.

"Oh shut up," Jessie replied, unperturbed. "If we can deliver him to the boss tomorrow, all with him still believing that we're taking him back to his home in the Miki Ruins or wherever, we'll never have to worry about food again."

"Yeah..." James sighed dreamily. "Still, it _is_ pretty weird that he can apparently understand Meowth, but not us. I've never seen a Pokémon like that before."

"I don't even understand what he _is_ ," Jessie said, pursing her lips. "Meowth, you couldn't get it out of him either, could you?"

"No," the Pokémon shook his head. "I don't fink he actually understood da question, even. He keeps calling himself a 'knuckles' or an 'echidna', but I haven't heard of eitha of dose."

"Weird...but whatever he is, he _is_ insanely strong," James said, with a (still slightly wide-eyed) side-glance indicating the hole where a tree stump had once been. It had left its spot when the fire had been in danger of going out and the freaky red Pokémon had decided to rip it out of the earth and then tear it into limb-sized pieces to throw onto the fire, an action which had left the three members of Team 'Bucket' staring in a mixture of amazement and terror. Now the creature had at least nodded off, having been given James' sleeping bag (over very feeble, quickly overruled protests) and lay curled up in it on his side with his back facing them a few metres from the fire, breath slow and regular.

"Yes. So whatever happens, he absolutely must _not_ find out about our plan until we have him safely inside the head quarters where we can contain him, okay?" Jessie instructed them earnestly.

"Hahah, yeah, but don't worry," Meowth said with a cattish grin, leaning back in smug relaxation, head tilted back and eyes closed. "Da only one he can understand is me, so as long as _I_ don't tell him we're planning on capturing him and selling him to da boss, all is-"

" _You were planning on doing WHAT with me?!"_

xxx

"So...you're _not_ a Pokémon."

Somehow, the boy called Ash seemed to have trouble grasping that particular concept.

"No, Ash, he's an _alien_ ," Misty, currently busy setting the table, replied exasperatedly, giving Sonic an apologetic smile. "Sorry. He's kinda slow."

" _Hey_!"

"Sonic, would you like to eat something while they're squabbling?" the darker-skinned boy, Brock (who _still_ hadn't opened his eyes) was working at the kitchen counter, busy with meal preparation. Jerking a thumb at the two other kids squabbling, he added, "Because that can go on for _days_..."

"Heh." Sonic, who had been leaning against the kitchen door, rubbed his nose with a grin. "Don't mind if I do. Thanks."

"Sure thing. Here at the ranch we always have enough food for everyone," Brock said. "Now, do you usually eat at a table, or...?" Sonic followed the boy's gaze toward the corner, where Pikachu (and a few other small, strange creatures, vaguely resembling an over-sized turtle, a green... _thing_ , a butterfly and, more disturbingly, a flying stone with two arms) were eating from various bowls. One of them, a sort of yellowish duck, had also somehow managed to fall over face first into its food and was now flailing and quacking in distress.

There was a bit of a pause as Sonic _very_ slowly looked back at Brock, and, consequently, the second half of the boy's question stuttered to a halt, the bicycle of conversation getting stuck in the sand pit of embarrassment.

"Brock?" Misty snapped her gaze up. "You're not _seriously_ asking Sonic to eat Pokémon food from a bowl on the floor, are you?" She put her fists on her hips (Ash seeming relieved she at least appeared to be finished with _him_ ), staring at the older teenager with the sort of indignant disbelief seemingly god-given to ten-year-old girls alone. Under her gaze, Brock flushed immediately.

"What? Er, uh, n-n- well, I just thought...I thought..." he stammered, withering under Misty's glare, until Sonic decided to take pity on the human and stepped forward.

"Heh, it's okay. And yeah, we _generally_ eat at tables in my world." He threw a meaningful glance at Brock. "We're _also_ in the habit of using cutlery. And not eating our young."

"Oh, what, no, I never meant you _did_ -!" Brock looked at Sonic aghast, now blushing harder than ever, which made it only all too easy for the hedgehog to continue, now with a bright grin,

"Also, I will promise to not catch mice in the night and deposit them half-dead beside your bed in the morning-"

"Look, I _said_ I'm sorry!" Brock defended himself, looking very much like he wished he'd never opened his mouth at all, while at least Misty and Ash had caught on and were now trying not to laugh too hard,

" - but I'll forgive you 'cause that stuff you're making smells delicious," Sonic finally quipped, at the same time walking over to the counter and taking one of the pink muffin-type things the human had just prepared a plate of and popping it into his mouth. "Wow! That's great. What are those?" he asked, then paused, when he noticed that suddenly the three humans were all looking at him. "What?" Sonic frowned.

"Oh, nothing," Brock replied, for some reason now suddenly sounding smug, "I'm just glad you enjoy my... _Poke Puffs_."

"Uh. Your _what_?" Sonic asked, now looking at the seeming confectionery more than suspiciously.

Behind him, Ash began to laugh. "Wow, Brock, we all knew your Pokémon food was great, but this is taking it to another level!"

"Pokémon...oh. _Oh_ ," Sonic managed, now actually feeling the beginning of embarrassment himself, though, he supposed, this was probably fair payback for _his_ needling earlier.

"They're treats given to Pokémon to raise their affection for you," Misty chimed in cheerfully. Brock bent a little down toward Sonic with a grin.

"Can you feel your affection for me rising already?"

"Not if you don't shut up about this pronto, _no_!" Sonic snapped back, sensing a slight heat creep into his own muzzle to accompany the blush previously on Brock's face. In a rather unfair twist of fate, Sonic noticed, even the _Pokémon_ seemed to find his current predicament entertaining. Finally, the hedgehog gave in, shaking his head and offering a conciliatory grin.

"Fine, fine, I admit I walked into that one. I promise I'll shut up now about that whole food business if you will."

"Sounds good to me," Brock replied, turning back to the food still on the stove. "So, what will it be for you, then? Pokémon food or pizza pies?" he asked with a slight grin over his shoulder.

" _Pizza pies_ , please. And _not_ in a plastic bowl," Sonic said pointedly as he, together with Misty and Ash, sat down at the table. It was set for five people, indicating that Oak would probably join them for dinner sooner or later, and the pizza pies, sitting in the middle of the setting already smelled delicious, even through their plastic bag wrapping. However...they didn't _quite_ smell as delicious as...

Sonic sighed. There were some battles you couldn't win.

"And," he added through gritted teeth, "Could I... _please_...have another Poké Puff?"

Thankfully, Brock only laughed. "It's okay, I'm actually quite flattered. Here, have those," he said, putting a few of the pink confections on a small plate and setting it down next to Sonic with a friendly nod. "We've got to make up for attacking you first thing _somehow_..."

"Eh, like I said, no harm done." Sonic returned the smile, and gave an easy shrug as Oak came out of the laboratory and joined them as well. The pizza pies Ash's mum had sent were unwrapped as well and the combination of the foods, the hedgehog had to admit, was pretty much almost as good as Chili Dogs. Almost.

Brock's 'Poke-puffs' indeed seemed to be a taste not only appealing to him, but also to the other critters, given that not soon after they'd started, Ash's pet, Pikachu, had finished its bowl on the floor and then bounded over to Sonic, enthusiastically leaping onto his lap.

" _Pika_!" it exclaimed cheerfully, staring expectantly at the puff Sonic had just been about to eat. Then it seemed to widen its eyes a _lot_.

" _Pi...ka...?"_

"Huh." Sonic raised a wry eye ridge at the yellow bundle of exaggerated cuteness in his lap. He was also aware of the curious gazes of the humans on him, Ash seemingly slightly embarrassed by his Pokémon's behaviour, but Sonic found he didn't actually mind as much.

"Well," he asked with a small grin, twirling the puff in his hand. "Looks like _someone_ has forgiven me for concussing their human pal, yeah?"

" _Pika, pika!_ " Pikachu nodded enthusiastically, (Sonic not quite sure whether it had understood what he'd been saying, but going by the betrayed expression on Ash's face _he_ sure seemed to think so), and Sonic laughed.

"Got your priorities in order, I see." He let the puff drop into Pikachu's waiting paws with a grin. The Pokémon swallowed it remarkably quickly and then promptly eyed the remaining puffs on Sonic's plate.

" _Pika...?"_

"Now, Pikachu, that's _enough_ -" Brock began in a chastising tone, but Sonic waved him off.

"Nah, it's fine, it can have them," he said. "I appreciate its taste in food."

" _PIKACHU_!" In what was potentially a Pokémon-language declaration of undying gratitude, Pikachu immediately swiped the remaining puffs out of Sonic's hand as he offered them and ran back with them to its other mutant friends in the corner.

"How _do_ Poké Puffs taste?" Misty asked, morbidly curious. "I mean...I wouldn't have thought you to like them, since you also like the human food...Brock, what are they even made of?"

"Eggs, nuts, oils, salt..." the other human counted off on his fingers, "Oh, and crushed and ground mealworms and maggots, mostly. And spices."

"They're made from _what_?!" Misty looked horrified. "That's disgusting!"

"For you, maybe." Sonic grinned. " _I_ want the recipe."

"You _eat_ insects?" Ash asked him, wide-eyed. "Because you _like_ them?"

"As snacks, sure." Sonic shrugged. "I _am_ a hedgehog. It's just, your average insect is hardly large enough to make for a proper meal as soon you're older than two or so, so..."

"Fascinating," Oak commented, again having immediately taken out his notebook and scribbling in it. "You're how old, then?"

"Seventeen. Why?" Sonic replied, shifting a bit on his too-large chair, privately thinking that 'talking' to Pikachu had been more fun than this twenty-questions-thing that seemed to be about to begin again.

"Does that make you an adult?" Oak asked, eagerly. "Or are you still prebuscent? Do you _evolve_ during your life, can your evolution take different paths-?"

"Professor!" Misty chided at once. "Stop it, that's really rude!"

"Oh." The man immediately winced, now also noting that Sonic looked slightly disturbed. "Is it?"

"Evolve?" Sonic asked.

"Well, yeah," Brock said, also sounding apologetic. "The Pokémon on our world grow by aging for a while, and then rapidly changing appearance into a bigger form when they've gained enough experience. Sometimes they also change shape, or colour, or even look nothing like they looked like before."

"Okay," Sonic replied. "Well, we _don't_...do that. Usually, anyway," he added under his breath - telling the professor anything about turning into Super Sonic, Darkspine Sonic, a Wisp-induced form or into a wolf, Sonic correctly guessed, would not end very well. "Evolution works kinda, uh, slower where I come from."

"Right, I...I see," Oak rubbed his head a little, looking slightly awkward. "I think I may have gotten carried away a little there. Sorry. Sorry."

Sonic sighed, deciding that despite being really _strange_ , probably none of them had meant to be rude. He cocked his head as he relaxed on the chair a bit more, giving a sliver of a lop-sided grin.

"So I guess I must _really_ look like a...Pokémon to you, huh?"

"Well, you _do_ exhibit similarities to quite a few known species, yes." Oak leaned across the table, his tone more restrained now as if he was trying to apologize for his earlier outburst, but underneath still excited as ever. Now he was showing Sonic the gameboy-like thing again, opening it and switching it on. "In fact, when I first saw you, I wondered whether you were perhaps a yet unknown evolution of a recently discovered Pokémon called _Cyndaquil_ -"

Sonic squinted at the picture displayed on the device, which seemed to show a blue and tan mouse-like creature, but with its back covered in flames reminiscent of spikes. It did not appear to be bothered by this.

"...huh. Well, I guess I can _sort_ of see the resemblance, but I'm honestly a hedgehog, not a mouse..."

"Are you _really_ sure, though?" Ash looked at him, curious again. "Maybe you also become more powerful when your quills are set on fire."

Sonic threw him a look. "Kid. Don't get any ideas."

"Ash, maybe it's time to go to sleep now, hm? I _think_ you're still a bit concussed," Misty said, flicking the black-haired boy on the head who winced.

"Ow. Uh, yeah, maybe..."

"In fact, maybe we should _all_ go to bed, hm, Professor?" Misty asked, rising from the table. "Sonic, I'd be happy to show you to one of the guest rooms in the house, there's lots. Ash is probably gonna go over to his mum's for the night, but me and Brock are both staying here."

"Hm? Oh. Yeah, that'd be good, actually," Sonic said, noticing the fatigue coming over him again at Misty's words. He gave a nod at Oak – yeah, slightly weird guy, but he seemed to be trying – and also offered the human a small, but friendly smile. "Thanks for the place to crash."

"My pleasure, Sonic," the man replied with an answering smile, now also rising and putting a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "And I'm _sure_ you won't mind if I run a few experiments on you in the morning in exchange, riiiiight...?"

Sonic heaved a _very_ big sigh.

Xxx

"Aaaaaaah! He's awake! He was awake da entire time!"

" _No no no! We aren't planning on capturing you at all! Meowth was making a joke!"_

" _James, you idiot, he can't even_ _understand_ _you-!"_

"YOU!" Knuckles roared, jabbing a pointed finger toward the three Team Bucket members immediately scrambling together and clutching at each other in the face of his ire, "YOU were planning to BETRAY me!"

"No!" Meowth desperately tried to wave his hands at Knuckles, "Look, being sold to da boss is actually a great fing, you gotta see da _benefits_ -!"

"I have been taken for a fool once," Knuckles growled at him, violet eyes blazing as his spiked fist clenched. " _Never_ again."

" _James! Try to get our Pokémon, maybe we can capture him if we fight-!"_

Now the woman was yelling something, the man darting toward their camping gear, to get weapons, to signal for help, Knuckles didn't know, but honestly he didn't care. Robotnik had learned back then what it meant to lie to his face, and now so would these clowns.

Knuckles screamed and _charged_.

When his open palm connected with the man's shoulder first (not his fist; he wasn't planning to _kill_ them) and knocked him away from their bag tail over snout into his companions, however, something very surprising happened.

" _Team Rocket is blasting off again~!"_

Knuckles stared in amazement, as, against all odds, his one swipe had somehow succeeded to launch the troupe into orbit.

xxx

Inside the bathroom, Amy was taking a moment to lean against the wall, trying to relax again. Yes, she had no idea where she was. Yes, everyone here was speaking a weird language she had never heard in her entire life. Yes, in the past twenty minutes she had come face-to-face with not one, but _two_ horrifying sea monsters and been saved by someone who had turned out to be just slightly sort of a pervert. _But at least those three human girls seem to be friendly,_ Amy thought. Young, non-threatening, and they had given her fresh clothes and taken her wet dress away to dry, so that was something, she guessed. _Now, what have we here...?_

Curious, she shook both bunched-up items of clothing out to look at them. When she beheld them in her entirety, somehow, she wasn't all that surprised.

 _Well,_ Amy thought dryly, gazing at the orange skirt and green blouse _, when I go looking for Sonic, at least he'll recognize me on sight._

Shrugging, she let her towel drop to the floor, and started to pull the skirt on, the green blouse with the white collar flung over the rim of the sink for the moment. Briefly, half-dressed, she paused to look at herself in the mirror – with her head band also given to the humans to dry, her quills were now standing up every which way in the back again, indeed letting her appear a _lot_ like she had looked two and a half years ago, travelling to the Miracle Planet when she had only turned twelve.

 _Well_ , a voice commented in her head stubbornly, even if she now was forced to dress like a little girl again, at least she didn't _look_ like one any more... _right_? She wondered, staring at the mirror with a frown (and, for a moment wishing the sisters by some miracle might have had also a spare bra).

 _Oh, well. I hope my stuff dries soon,_ Amy thought, before dropping her hand and bending over to pick up the blouse again.

It was as this point she noted that the door was only ever so slightly ajar.

With one _very_ familiar blue head poking through _._

" _Golduck...?"_

xxx

In the living room next door, the three sisters and leaders of the Azure City Gym by now had also changed from the swim wear, and were currently waiting for their guest to emerge again. It was Violet who broke the silence first.

"Okay, like...that Pokémon. Are we _sure_ she is a Pokémon?" She ran a hand through her hair. "It's just, she acts really...well, human."

"Well, what else could she be?" Lily asked, frowning. "I mean it's common knowledge that really intelligent Pokémon exist." Then she gasped with excitement. "Oh my gosh, do you think she's a _mew_?!"

"I have honestly no idea," Violet shook her head. "Seriously, why does this happen, like, the first month that we re-open the Gym as an arena instead of just for shows, something weird _immediately_ shows up."

"I think it's kinda exciting, actually," Daisy smiled. "Finding out what she is and where she came from could be fun."

"Yeah!" Lily agreed enthusiastically, just before immediately frowning again. "But, say...just to rule that out, she can't really be a... _transformed_ or mutated human, right?"

" _GET_ _OUT!_ _"_

It was at this point that all three of the sisters' eyes widened simultaneously, as all they heard was an unintelligible (but definitely enraged) scream, and then already saw Lily's Golduck flying out of the bathroom and into the living room backwards, where it collapsed against the wall unconscious, one hammer-print on its forehead.

"Goolduck..." it groaned.

"Well," Daisy let see a wry smile. "Dunno about _human_ , but I have a feeling she'll fit in here quite well regardless…"

xxx

"Ow...owowowow..."

"Dammit, I thought we had _filled_ our crash quota for the week..."

"This is all your fault, Meowth."

Somewhere in the nightly forest, there was a clearing with three figures inside it in various uncomfortable-looking landing positions, all softly moaning into the moss they had landed in.

"Well, how was I sapposed ta _know_ he wasn't sleeping?!" the cat Pokémon, the first to sit up and hold his head, snapped at his companions.

"If you had just...kept your _trap_ shut..." Jessie growled, slowly uprighting herself again, "We wouldn't be _here_ now, just as lost as that weird Pokémon."

"What _was_ that thing even, that attack was just as strong as that twerp's Pikachu..." James also groaned as he sat up, wincing as various bones cracked into the correct position again.

Jessie glared at him. "Well, we're never gonna know _now_ , are w-?"

" _HEY_!"

Team Rocket abruptly stopped their conversation. And then turned around to stare in absolute terror.

" _Don't think you can get away so easily! I DEMAND an explanation!"_ at the side of the clearing they had landed in, the red, terrible Pokémon was back and now roaring at them in towering rage.

"AGH!"

"How did it _find_ us?!"

"I don't care! Run away! Run away!" James screamed, and, in a manoeuvre practiced many times, Team Rocket was already on their feet and tearing away screaming, arms waving above their heads.

(This, unfortunately, only seemed to provoke the Pokémon.)

" _Stop it! Who do you think you are?! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"_

xxx

Elsewhere, blue ears twitched as a sleeping blue hedgehog, currently lying in an oversized human bed, rolled over in his peaceful slumber. A light frown briefly passed over his face as some faint noises, curiously sounding not entirely unlike an enraged echidna chasing three terrified, screaming people through a nightly forest, wafted up through the open window, but even if the hero of Mobius then actually did open his eyes for a moment, in the end he only turned onto his other side, pulled the comforter over his head and curled up again.

Probably just some strange nocturnal 'Pokémon'.

 _To be continued..._

* * *

Hey there! Really happy if People are still here despite the long gap, but I hope you liked! I'll try to update somewhat faster...always happy to hear what you think, too, so if you read, please Review! :D


	10. Many Happy Returns

**Review Replies!**

guy: Yeah, shorter chapters here than in my other Sonic fics but instead at least...a little bit more frequent? Hopefully? XD And no worries, I wouldn't ever actually write Knuckles as _stupid -_ there is a difference between being naive and being an idiot, and by now Knuckles has managed to learn a lot more about the world and the people in it. I think he was actually pretending to sleep on purpose - he is (justifiably) suspicious of others' motives by now. That said, this chapter, more Tails! :D

Autumn: Thanks, here you go!

DanTheMan: Aw, thank you! And yup, this story's going again :)

Guest: Right?

Guest: Ahahah, that is the question now, isn't it? More information on that...soonish XD

LoneGarurumon: Ahahahaha, NOPE, they can't XD They're so wonderfully incompetent they're an absolute JOY to write :3 Hopefully more fun to follow, hope you enjoy the update! :D

Shadow Huntress: OMG, MEGA REVIEW, thanks! :D And yeah, oh man, I was SO into Pokemon as a kid, I'm surprised my parents kept their sanity XD I do remember being annoyed to death by Team Rocket at times but by now I kinda have to smile whenever I think of them, it's hard to find another trio of villains that are so hammy, needlessly complicated with their plans AND hopelessly fixated (they should meet up with Boom!Robotnik lol) (It is "Team Rocket", btw. I think they introduced themselves as Team Bucket because Team Rocket are known Pokemon thieves and they were worried Knuckles might recognize the name. :p As for writing Knuckles smart and capable, that's actually something that's really important about this character to me - him being not as familiar with social interactions and cues and clues, NOT him being dumb (plus, with Robotnik and his comments about humans in Sonic X, I think Knuckles is rather distrustful of humans in general). I always base my characterization of him on the fanfics of JudasFm, she had a great way of writing him :) When the Mobian characters talk, the humans don't hear repetitive sounds, they do hear a varied foreign language - Ash at the beginning when Sonic tries to talk to him mentions to Pikachu that he can't make out any distinctive sound that Sonic makes a lot that he could name him after :p (Sadly, that doesn't help to clue them in that they aren't Pokemon...) That said, some reunifications in the making and more world exploring! :D Hope you like and thanks again for that thoughtful comment!

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Many Happy Returns**

"Ugh. Doc, do we _have_ to do this before breakfast?" Sonic was sitting on the examination table in the lab, hands in his lap and head tilted to the side with a somewhat annoyed expression, seemingly not pleased at the way the human was currently holding up his left ear by its tip and using some piece of equipment to peer inside.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but Brock has almost finished cooking and I thought if we have a couple of minutes anyway..."

Sonic groaned. He wasn't quite sure what had possessed him when he had agreed to submit to 'just a few, non-invasive tests, _please_?' by the over-enthusiastic professor appearing in the door of his guest room in the morning, but he grimly supposed it probably had something to do with how the bloke increasingly reminded him of Kintobor.

 _Yeah, and we all know how well *that* ended, don't we?_ a sarcastic voice in his head asked, which Sonic tried his best to suppress.

 _No. The reason I'm going along with this is that I actually *do* think an official 'missing person' thing at the police station would be helpful. And that's likely to go faster if I pay them a favour first._ Sonic sighed. _The things I do for you guys..._

A doorbell ringing interrupted his thought process, startling both him and Oak. Any hopes of this ordeal perhaps ending prematurely were promptly dashed, however, when the professor simply called out, "Can somebody get that, please?! Busy here!" To Sonic, he added, "Alright. Hop on down, please."

"Are we done?" Sonic's face assumed a hopeful expression as he slid down from the table again. So far, the exam had consisted of the professor listening to his heart ("Does it...always beat _that_ fast?"), testing his reflexes ("Whoa!") and moving his joints, cutting off a fur sample from his shoulder, taking a magnifying glass to his quills, and had also included Oak pulling out a thermometre (that had had Sonic up against the wall again until he was reassured it was supposed to go into his mouth and _nowhere_ else.)

"Almost. I would still like to scan you, if that's okay. Can you step onto the platform there, please?"

"Like this?" Sonic asked, at the same time coming to stand on the metal square with the half-open glass cylinder atop it. Truthfully, it made him somewhat uncomfortable- the thing reminded him way too much of a roboticizer – but he also guessed Oak wasn't very likely to try and start taking over the world with robot slaves any time soon, so he was probably safe. Green light washed over the hedgehog from a lamp above, and the professor nodded.

"Yes, perfect!" Oak smiled as a 3D-image of Sonic lit up on the screen in front of him. "Do you think I could get another image of you without your shoes? That's, uh, not rude to ask someone like you, is it?"

Sonic snorted. "More strange than rude, doc. But yeah, no, I'm mostly wearing the shoes because I need them to _protect_ my feet, not to, uh, look decent or anything."

"Protect your feet?" Oak blinked at him. "From what?"

And now it was Sonic's turn to grin. "From friction heat." When the human only blinked, apparently not understanding, the blue hedgehog's grin turned smug. "I might not be one of your Pokemon, but I _do_ have my own share of skills, doc."

"Really?!" now Oak seemed even more excited. "That's amazing! Would you care to demonstrate them to me?"

Sonic, privately thinking that this was already far better than the experiments had been so far, gave a pleased thumbs-up. "Sure thing. But you really wanna see me do that stuff outside, so-"

"Professor Oak? Sonic?" Misty poked her head through the door, looking slightly confused. "I _think_ you have a visitor..."

xxx

Somewhat calmed down again (that duck-billed PERV!), Amy was currently looking at herself in the mirror, trying to get her breathing under control. The green blouse had been tucked into her orange skirt and she had smoothed down her quills as best as she could without a headband, in the end looking quite presentable, she thought. The only other thing that had been missing from the outfit was...

" _Hey, look, she looks really cute!"_ The pink-haired girl's face split into a smile as Amy entered the living room where the humans apparently had been waiting for her.

"Um..." Amy tried, but had honestly no idea how to make herself understood. Also, this was going to be really embarrassing. The pink hedgehog kneaded the hem of her skirt in between her fingers again, willing herself not to blush as she looked at the girls. "Er..."

" _Hm? Is there anything else you need?"_ the blonde apparently had picked up on what Amy had attempted to convey, because she was now starting to point at objects, or holding them out to her.

" _Do you want a drink?"_ She indicated a bottle on the table. " _Or maybe food?_ " She held out an apple.

"Er...actually..." Amy tried, still looking around the room awkwardly, but then her face lit up when she saw a pen and a paper pad, lying right there on the coffee table.

" _Oh wow, look at this, she's_ _drawing_ _!"_ one of the humans exclaimed something in excitement as soon as Amy had started scribbling and then held the paper out to the blonde.

" _What is it? What'd she draw?!"_ the youngest girl was now also shoving her face into her sister's personal space, all of them crowding around the doodle.

" _I...think..."_ The oldest one blinked, and then looked at her sisters with amazement. _"She's drawn...socks and panties...?"_

xxx

It was the next morning, when Tails woke up, stretched, yawned, and then noticed that he had fallen asleep without meaning to. After he had finished his 'dinner' yesterday night, he had actually wanted to leave then, and start looking for his friends, but then, unsurprisingly, the white vixen had picked him up by his neck fur _again_ and carried him along with her kits into the cave. Once there, the little foxes had all started to curl against their mother who had lain down with her back against the cave entrance, her body and nine tails shielding all six of her kits. Tails had been placed right in the middle of them, which had immediately resulted in little heads and tails and paws coming to rest on his limbs and burying into his belly fur, effectively creating the sensation of being enveloped in a very fuzzy, slightly moving blanket, making for a warm spot despite the cold cave floor and night chill settling in.

At first, Tails' plan had been to wait until everyone of the vulpine family would have been asleep and then sneak out as carefully as possible – as much as he was grateful for the mother to have rescued him from certain death, he was _not_ ready to start living as one of her feral kits! - but, somewhere along the line, a warm spot and a belly full of food had somehow proved just a little too much for Mobius' youngest hero, and he had promptly dropped off after not even five minutes.

Now he was finding himself all alone, though, the cave already empty of its other inhabitants.

"Huh?" Tails sat up in confusion, looking around. As he crawled out of the cave, it became quickly apparent that far from having abandoned him, the fire foxes only had gotten an earlier start for their day – outside, the kits were chasing each other around and play-fighting with each other, as their mother sat and watched them at the side of the clearing. Seeing Tails, she gave an inclination of her head, not quite unlike a 'good morning'.

"Morning to you too," Tails mumbled, yawning again. He scratched somewhat ineffectually at his rumpled and dusty fur, certain by now that he had to be looking like a feral at this point. "Er, look," he said to the vixen, pointing at the edge of the clearing, "Thanks for rescuing me and the food and all, but now I really need to start looking for my friends-"

" _Ninetales_?" At once, as if having understood the meaning of his words, the large white fox had gotten up and was looking at him, concerned. " _Ninetales, ninetales!_ " She was shaking her head.

As she was striding toward him now, appearing seriously agitated, Tails took another step backwards, raising his hands. A part of him was debating whether it wouldn't be better altogether to take off _now_ , but another part of him remembered the fox mother's jumping ability and was paranoid that she would perhaps leap up and snatch him out of the air if he attempted what she'd view as an escape from her custody.

"Look, uh, I appreciate you looking out for me and all, but I _promise_ I can take of myself usually-" Tails tried, again, his heart sinking when the red eyes of the vixen only appeared to become sterner and more concerned the more he talked, but then, before he could even think of what he should possibly do or try next, there was suddenly an ear-piercing scream from the sky.

" _Spearow_!"

With a speed that should not have been possible, a shadow above them dove down like an earthbound comet, the pile of fox kits it had been aiming for shrieking and scattering away, but one of them not fast enough. There was a panicked, high-pitched yelp as the airborne blur just for one moment became visible as a large, brown-feathered, _fierce_ -looking bird of prey and let its claws close securely around the one fox kit that hadn't managed to hide.

" _NINETALES!"_ the white vixen howled all at once in terrible fear and fury, unleashing a mighty blast of fire toward the hawk-like creature rapidly ascending. Her kit's panicked cries for its mother quickly grew weaker as the bird rose higher and higher and out of her range, and even with the load, the ascending avian monster was dodging the firey blasts with ease.

" _Ninetales_!" the vixen screamed again, a heart-rending howl as it became apparent that she couldn't reach them any more, even her highest leaps too low. The sheer agony in the fox mother's cry was enough to shock Tails back into action with a jolt.

"No!" the youngest hero of Mobius yelled, leaping into the air, his namesakes at once whirling like helicopter blades.

" _You let her kit go, you creep!_ " he shouted, propelling himself upwards as fast as he could, catching up to the (suddenly very surprised) bird in seconds. "You got nothing on Egghead's fighter jets, you hear me?! _Nothing_!" Tails screamed – and then hurled himself straight at the avian predator in a perfectly executed homing attack.

The bird shrieked upon the impact, immediately dropping the little fox.

"Thank you!" Tails called back cockily, flawlessly diving down before the flailing little kit had been able to fall more than a few metres, catching it securely in his arms.

"There you go, now you're safe, let's get you back to your-"

" _SPEAROW_!"

"-uh oh," Tails managed. One look over his shoulder was enough to confirm that the bird apparently had not been quite as rattled as he thought it would be, and instead was now shooting straight toward them with murder in its eyes.

Tails said a word Sonic would not have been proud of.

" _SPEA-ROW_!" The bird cried again and Tails whirled around, trying to move his namesakes as fast he could, diving downwards toward the relative safety of the forest's canopy, but even with the wind rushing past him fast enough to drive tears into his eyes, he already knew he wouldn't make it.

Instinctively, he tried to shift the fox kit and cradle it as close to his chest as he could, hoping against hope that his small body would at least provide enough protection for it to survive the hit or maybe its mother would be able to catch it when it fell-

" _Vulpix_!"

"Wha- _no_! Get _back_!" Tails shouted in horror as the little fox was determinedly wriggling out of his hold, and instead clambering onto his back in mid-flight.

" _Vulpix_!" it cried defiantly at the bird rushing toward them – and then unleashed what felt like a bigger flame Tails had even seen its mother blast.

" _Spearow_!" the bird screamed as the flames enveloped it like a phoenix' fire, and flailed for a moment in mid-air – curiously much less burned than it logically should have been – but that small reprieve was enough time for Tails to finally land on the forest floor again, the fox kit leaping from his shoulder and darting back to its mother who immediately enveloped it with her neck and tails, licking and nuzzling at it as if it had been on fire and she was trying to douse the flames. Her head briefly snapped up to emit a furious roar at the still hovering predator bird, but it seemed like it was already on the retreat – clearly deciding that there had to be easier prey somewhere.

She briefly glared after it, as if assuring herself that it really was leaving, and, when it had disappeared, once more gave another lick to her kit that by now seemed to have stopped trembling against her flank.

Then she looked up at Tails, and for a moment, Tails had the strangest sensation as if he was for some reason no longer looking at a feral fantasy creature, but at something more ancient, and imbued with all the intelligence of a sapient such as himself.

" _Ninetales_ ," she said, her voice now curiously sombre and well-articulated as if she had only been speaking another language, but still clearly expressing an unmistakeable intent. Tails swallowed.

"You're...welcome."

The white fox nodded, before then slowly getting up and walking toward him again. Tails stiffened, not sure what was going to happen now, and briefly felt a twinge of nervousness as the large vixen then stopped before him, looking down at him for a moment with unreadable eyes...

And then he only flinched a little, when she all at once bent down to place a long, hard lick across his face, before pressing her muzzle into his head fur, briefly closing her eyes.

Tails had the oddest impression of suddenly having received a motherly kiss.

"...heh. Glad I could help," he said, somewhat shakily, and then, tentatively, also lifted his arms to give the tall white fox a hug around her neck. There was a deep, pleased noise that emanated from inside the vixen at this, so Tails supposed this had been appreciated. He tried a smile.

"Guess even in whatever strange place this is, everyone likes a hug, huh?" he ventured, stepping back again. Then he glanced back at the way he had tried to leave earlier.

"But, listen, I really do need to leave now. I've got a big brother who's probably worried for me," he said, and this time, was surprised to find that the white vixen only briefly cocked her head, but then seemed to make a noise curiously similar to a sigh, before nodding in understanding.

" _Ninetales_."

As if on cue, the other kits then also came bounding up, again pushing their heads into Tails' belly and his hands, yipping and looking up at him with large, curious eyes. The one he had saved – the same one that had incidentally stolen his shoes and set his dinner on fire – even seemed to look a little sad.

Tails smiled.

"Heh, yeah, guys, I'll miss you, too. I guess you'll have to find somebody else to steal their sneakers now, huh?" He patted them on their heads, briefly scratched the fur behind the ear of his shoe thief, and then straightened up again, giving the fox family a little wave.

"See you around, okay? And take care not to let yourselves get abducted again!" So saying, he leapt into the air again, and took off, leaving behind a smiling vixen, an excitedly barking kit, and five of its siblings looking up at him, their mouths forming little 'o's.

Tails laughed and waved, before rising even higher above the canopy, and briefly scanning the horizons beyond the forest.

Now where was...?

"Ah! I knew I hadn't imagined it!" Tails grinned in triumph, before immediately shifting his weight and making a literal beeline toward his new destination.

Because even during that panicked fight with the bird, the youngest hero of Mobius had been _sure_ he had glimpsed a farmhouse...

 _To be continued..._

* * *

Aw, look, Tails had a nice chapter! :D Hope you liked, anyone playing Pokemon Go, there's currently triple XP for catching stuff and if you read, please review! :P


	11. On My Way to Viridian City

**Anonymous Review Replies!**

CjV: Aw, thank you! :D It's a lot of fun to write each character's separate storylines, they all have such unique methods to engage with anything they come across. Knuckles and Team Rocket is a blast in particular. XD

Guest: Heh, glad you like! :) I pull my stories off mostly with a LOT of discipline to get myself to finish stuff I started. ;p Hope you enjoyed the last update to First Class as well! I do remember reading one or two issues with Eclipse, yes. However, right now my plate is a bit full with fanfics that do need to get finished first - but there's no telling if I might not find a place for him in one of my other fanfics where Shadow is a main character :p Just depends on where inspiration takes the plot!

LoneGarurumon: Adorable brother reunion incoming indeed :D Gods I love those two reuniting and Sonic being concerned and happy and fluff. XD I did actually think a lot about what you said about shuffling the character segments around in the last chapter - I think the reason why I kept Tails' for last was that it has the most action and then leaves with a nice hint as to the upcoming events. Though yes, the rest of the flow might have gone better in a different order. I do hope you enjoy this chapter then instead, I'm feeling pretty good about arrangements this time ;P Thanks for commenting!

* * *

 _ **Last Time...**_

 _Well, last time Tails had been adopted/abducted by a family of Ninetales and Vulpix, but then left them after saving one of the kits from certain death! And now he's on his way to a farmhouse where a certain hedgehog might just be hanging out..._

 _Amy, meanwhile, has been stalked by a Golduck and is making fast friends with the girls from the Azure City Pokemon Gym, even if they don't speak her language and are not quite sure what she is. And Knuckles...well. Let's say Team Rocket TRIED to kidnap him..._

 **Chapter Ten: On My Way to Viridian City...**

Misty awoke with a yawn and a long, luxurious stretch. Sunlight was falling through the window in her guest bed room, indicating that it was late morning by now, the noises emanating from both the kitchen and the laboratory meaning that both Brock and Professor Oak likely already had been up and working for a while.

"Mmmh...!" Misty sat up, slowly, rubbing her eyes. She had had the _weirdest_ dream – a Pokémon-like alien coming to visit them and beating Ash up when he'd tried to capture it (that part had been funny) but now she couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness her subconscious came up with. The next moment, the ringing door bell startled her from her musings, the girl jumping up abruptly.

"Can someone get that, please?!" the professor's voice echoed through the house almost simultaneously. "Busy here!"

"On it!" Misty called back, hastily wrapping a dressing gown around herself as she hurried down the stairs. The aroma of Brock's delicious pancakes wafted toward her from the kitchen as she crossed over to the front door and she smiled. Surely, she'd be able to get a laugh at the breakfast table when she told the boys of the nonsensical dream scenario (Aliens. Who looked like Pokémon and talked. _Really_.) and she therefore pulled open the door with a friendly smile to see who it was.

"Yes, hel-huh?"

"Down here. Hello," said the small, bipedal talking fox-Pokémon at the door, beaming up at her with a cheerful wave. "I was just wondering whether I could use your phone?"

xxx

"A visit- _oh!_ ," Oak had turned to look around, raising his eye brows as he looked past Misty and then saw the...small, fuzzy _thing_...standing in the doorway behind her. He had a bit of trouble making out what it was (it looked, in fact, more like a walking brambleberry bush than anything else) but apparently, Sonic had no such trouble. At the first sight of the furry creature behind Misty, the hedgehog had leapt up with a wide, disbelieving grin.

"No way! _Tails_!"

" _Sonic!"_

Their visitor broke out into an equally relieved laugh and immediately dashed into the room, careening full tilt into the bigger hedgehog, who caught him securely into a hug, for a moment holding him seemingly tight enough to hurt.

"Li'l buddy! You're here, too! How did ya know how to find me?! And..." and here the blue hedgehog for the first time seemed to notice the state the fox kit was in, now actually a note of concern entering his voice as he gently moved the smaller Mobian away from him, looking at the ruined golden pelt. "...what happened to you? Didja get hurt in the explosion?" Sonic's grip seemed to tighten at his words, though if the hedgehog noticed that himself was impossible to tell.

"No!" Tails vigorously shook his head. "But I almost got eaten by _giant caterpillars_! Under the command of a bee goddess! And I had to spend all night outside in the forest getting attacked by insects and birds and adopted by ferals and _everything_ and I've been looking for your forever, and it was really, really _scary._ " The fox kit swallowed, briefly glancing at the floor as if embarrassed, but then looked up at the hedgehog again eyes large and serious. "I _think_ they have a problem with their animals here, Sonic."

xxx

"...do they," Sonic replied, blinking, his eyes once again travelling over the fur of his kid brother. Currently, it was still sticking up in all directions, had various pieces of greenery installed at irregular intervals, and (for some reason) seemed to have been set on fire in places.

"Yeah!" Tails disentangled himself from his grip. "Sonic, where _are_ we? And who are _they_?" he asked, now somewhat self-consciously brushing down the larger twigs caught up in his coat as he seemed to remember the presence of the humans in the room.

"Ah. Right." The hedgehog ran a hand through his quills, the alarm bells in his head now slowly subsiding as it became apparent that Tails appeared to be a bit frazzled, but healthy and whole. He laid a hand around the kit's shoulders and turned him a little so they could both face the others, who had been watching them with silent curiosity. "Apparently, we managed to Chaos Control ourselves to a different planet, Tails. This is Professor Oak and Misty, I met them last night. They said they could help me find the rest of you guys."

"Oh. That's nice of you!" the younger Mobian immediately smiled at their hosts, despite the news of their planetary relocation his cheerful nature bouncing back without visible effort on his part. (Sonic privately suspected the fox kit had in his previous life perhaps been a pogo stick). "I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. I'm Sonic's little brother," he said, now pointing at the hedgehog while the pride was positively coming out of his ears.

"Hey...Tails," Misty was the first to also venture a smile in return. "Welcome to Earth. Did you say you're his brother? You look kinda different..."

"Oh, yeah. That's because he's a hedgehog and I'm a fox," Tails nodded sagely. "You don't have Mobians here that you can't tell, huh? I met your foxes, by the way. They're kinda strange."

Both Oak and Misty gave Tails a look that indicated _they_ probably thought 'kinda strange' was more applicable to their newest visitor, actually, so Sonic - used to reactions like this to his kid brother even on their home planet - took that opportunity to neatly step in.

"Well, it's good that you're here now, li'l bro, we were just about to have breakfast and then head off to the next big city to talk to their police about finding the others. But uh, before that..." Sonic trailed off a little, giving his sibling a longer look. "How about a _bath_ first, li'l buddy?"

xxx

Knuckles was panting. The chase had lasted well into the night, but the master of Angel Island not only had excellent endurance, he was also a tracker second to none. Now the moon had already risen high over the horizon, but he was finally holding the man of the trio of his wannabe-abductors by the collar, his right foot planted on the back of the cat, who currently had his face pressed into the dirt. He was somewhat reluctant to lay a hand on the woman yet, but the hard edge in his violet glare was nevertheless conveying to her that this could definitely become an option if she attempted to do anything stupid.

Well. Not like it seemed that any of them would have the _energy_ to do anything stupid anyway, but...

"Okay," Knuckles said, trying to get his breathing under control again. " _You_ ," he increased the pressure on Meowth's back subtly to convey his message. "Translate what I say."

"Ow. Yessir," the Mobian winced.

"I see we understand each other. Now. You three jokers will take me to..."

Here Knuckles paused. By now he had already worked out that wherever this place was, it had to be very, very far from home. Getting back to the Mystic Ruins where he had left Angel Island would almost certainly mean either having to use Chaos Control (which had sent him here in the first place) or – and here he gritted his teeth – enlist the help of that blue lunatic for a supersonic ride back home. In fact, even Chaos Control would mean either having Sonic _or_ Shadow on hand, and he had no idea where either of them were. And even at finding a Chaos Emerald they'd need for a Chaos Control in the first place the hedgehogs would be much better since they could cover a lot more ground faster, Knuckles admitted with gritted teeth.

 _Dammit_.

There was no choice. Finding Sonic first would be paramount no matter what he did.

Now where would that six-quilled entertainment-addict be likely to be found...?

"...take me to the nearest big city," Knuckles said firmly.

"Take you to da nearest big city?!" Meowth repeated, twisting his head around to stare up at Knuckles, wide-eyed. "Dat's Viridian City, but-"

"Right. Then that's where we're going. Start walking."

"B-but – it's da middle of da night!" Meowth exclaimed. "And we've been wunning for hours and we're _weally_ tired and-"

Knuckles bent down and managed to say the next word without actually separating his teeth.

" _Walk_."

xxx

"Alright, then. So, how are we gonna get to the police station? Is it far?"

"Well, it's the next city over. It'll probably take around two hours to walk there, if we leave now, we should make it by midday," Ash said, hoisting his green backpack onto one shoulder as Pikachu jumped onto the other. After breakfast and fox-cleaning had been taken care of – and Tails had been filled in on the intricacies of their new home world for the moment – all three of Ash, Brock and Misty had immediately volunteered to take the trip with the two of them to the police station, which had been a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

" _Walk_ there?" Sonic raised an eye ridge. "Not that I mind or anything, but...don't you guys drive cars in this world? Or something?"

"Uh, sure, _adults_ do," Misty said. "But me and Ash are like, ten. Even Brock is only fifteen."

"Uhm. So?" Tails frowned up at her in confusion. "I'm nine and _I_ drive."

"Yeah, li'l bro, but you're kind of a special case, I thought we discussed this?" Sonic cut in. "Which is why, in case the police back _home_ ever asks us..." he trailed off, expectantly, until Tails replied, sighing,

"... _you're_ the one piloting the supersonic jet plane. I _know_ , Sonic," he huffed.

"Glad to hear it, kiddo," Sonic smiled (also ignoring the increasingly curious faces and the muttered comment of 'jet planes?' from their new human friends).

xxx

"Maybe...maybe she _is_ a mew?"

Daisy blinked at her sister Violet's suggestion. Both of them were watching Lily and their visiting Pokémon enthusiastically sketching on anything and everything, 'talking' about what, depending on interpretation of the drawings, could either have been something to do with blue buzzsaws, or maybe explosions and moustaches, Daisy wasn't quite sure.

"A mew?"

"Yeah. Like Lily said. I mean, she's pink and she's small and probably female, like the legends say and I think she actually _teleported_ into our gym, appearing so suddenly. Also, she seems really intelligent and our Pokedex has no idea what she's supposed to be." As if to demonstrate again, Violet pointed the gadget at their oblivious visitor, the LED on it lighting up as the mechanic voice proclaimed the familiar ' _Insufficient Data. Species unknown.'_

"I dunno." Daisy said with a frown. "I think...mews are supposed to have a really long tail, aren't they?"

Silence descended as both their gazes travelled as one to their visitor's backside, modestly concealed by the green skirt they'd given her. It seemed to bulge over _some_ sort of tail, but its exact form was kind of hard to tell. There was a bit of a pause.

"So...do we check?"

Daisy threw Violet a look. "Do _you_ want a hammer to the face?"

"...fair point." Violet admitted. "Maybe checking whether she's really female isn't a good idea, either, huh?"

" _Yes_ ," Daisy said, very firmly. Out of all of them, Violet was usually the most analytical and level-headed, a stark contrast to their bubbly and easily excited youngest sister Lily, but, for some reason, neither of them seemed to have _quite_ yet developed the common sense Daisy had, which was probably the fate of all older siblings worldwide. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure she's female. And I also think that maybe a several foot long tail would be kind of _visible_ underneath a fifteen-inch skirt, don't you think?"

"Yeeeeah, okay..." Violet said, though it sounded a bit disappointed that they hadn't in fact a legendary and all-powerful Pokémon currently sitting on their couch and playing charades.

"Exactly." Daisy nodded. "So, unless I missed something and mythical Pokémon actually end up soaked in other people's swimming pools at regular intervals, I don't think she is one. I'd say it's more probable that she's just a really young unknown psychic type of some sort who just messed up her first teleportation, or something. Her trainer is probably worried sick."

Violet sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right. We should submit a police report first thing in the morning. Do you think we should keep her in a Pokeball until then, or...?"

"Doubt it's possible." Daisy shook her head. "If she's owned by whoever put that dress on her, a regular Pokeball would likely just bounce off her head. And _that_ would probably make her angry."

"Hm. Yes," Violet agreed, briefly throwing a side-glance at a (still unconscious) Golduck in the corner of the room. "That would be kind of bad."

"Uhm. Guys?" Lily's head poked up over the head of the couch. "Do we have any spare blankets around? I think the entire day has just been a little much for her..."

Her words had been spoken quietly and in a hush, and as her sisters glanced up, the reason had also become obvious. On the sofa, their little pink-furred visitor seemed to have fallen asleep right where she sat, curled up on her side a little bit like a domesticated pet would, arm tugged under her head as a makeshift pillow.

"Huh," Daisy commented as they regarded the small sleeping fur bundle. "You know, despite the fact that she defeated a Gyarados today, somewhere she is kinda…incredibly cute."

"I _know_ , right?" Lily (impressively) managed to squeak while whispering.

" _And_ ," Violet said, suddenly bending forward and reaching out two grasping fingers to lift something, obeying the time-old traditons of anime (and entirely ignoring her sister's panicked ' _Violet_!' as she did so), and then grinned. "Definitely _not_ a mew!"

xxx

"Hey, uh. Sonic?"

Sonic glanced over his shoulder. The one who had spoken had been Ash, the human boy now also looking at him somewhat awkwardly. They were all walking along a wide, well-trodden dirt road – so far, cemented roads seemed to be a bit of a rarity in the Pokémon world – that had been steadily leading out of the village where Proessor Oak's lab had been situated. By now it was meandering its way through the fields toward a large forest. At Ash's address, Sonic angled an attentive ear toward him and gave him a nod.

"Yeah?"

"I just..." Ash hesitated a bit. "I just wanted to say I'm _really_ sorry. For trying to catch you as a Pokémon."

"Eh, like I said, I'm over it. 's long as you don't try it again, that is," Sonic gave the boy a pointed look, which Ash returned with an embarrassed chuckle.

"Yeah, no, I won't. And as long as you guys stay with us, no other trainer will try to capture you, either – well, not unless they're Team Rocket, anyway..."

"Team _who_?" Sonic wanted to ask, but was interrupted by Tails' outcry of -

"Wait, we're gonna go through _there_?!" The two-tail was staring at the forest ahead of them in terror.

"Well, yeah, Viridian city is straight behind i-" Brock began, but the little fox had already crossed his arms.

"Nuh-huh. 'm not gonna go back in there. Everything living in that forest is _nuts_ , Sonic."

"That where the, uh, fox-eating caterpillars attacked you, huh?" The hedgehog asked, trying not to let the edges of his mouth twitch as much. Tails began to scowl.

" _Not_ funny, Sonic! They could eat us all alive!"

"Hm. Usually, wild Pokémon will only jump out at you if you venture into the tall grass, though," Misty said, thoughtfully. "Around here, literally _everyone_ knows that. Did you go into the tall grass, Tails?"

"There was nothing _but_ tall grass!"

"Well, this time let's take care to stay on the path, okay? If we do that, we should be fine," Brock said soothingly. Tails turned his nose up.

"Fine. But when the insects come this time, I'll fly away and watch you get eaten."

"We could use some repel?" Ash suggested, but Misty cut him off.

"Yeah, no. That stuff is crazy expensive and you still haven't paid me back for my bike-"

" - not that bike _again_ -"

"- and anyway, we'll be able to deal with some stupid _caterpies_. Let's go."

"...her bike?" Sonic ventured as they had entered the forest soon after (Tails sticking as close as he could to the tallest human, Brock, and turning his head often enough that he started looking like a fox-eared radar tower). Ash groaned.

"Part of my worst day ever. I totalled her bike on the very first day I set out to become a Pokémon Master and she hasn't let up on it since."

"Girl who knows how to collect debts, huh? I know a bat like that," Sonic remarked. "What's a 'Pokémon Master'?"

"Oh, well, only the best Pokémon trainer in the entire _world_!" Ash's eyes had lit up with wide enthusiasm. "And I want to be the very best!"

"Don't be so loud!" Tails shushed warningly, letting them all flinch. "The _insects_ will hear us!"

"Uhm, Tails, I promise you it's really safe if you stay on the paths," Brock tried with a reassuring smile. "I was scared of wild Pokémon, too, when I was smaller, but really, they won't attack if you don't stray from the path."

"Oh yeah?" Tails pointed to a large gash hacked into the underbrush cutting straight across the forest path. There where three sets of widely spaced apart shoe prints (and one set of cat prints) on the muddy ground visible, much like a small group had been running for their lives through this very forest last night, pursued by something terrible.

Brock was silent for a moment.

Then:

"Okay, tell you what, I'll carry you, and the _moment_ you see something, you shout and we run like hell."

"Right."

While this was going on in the back of their group, Sonic was more concerned with what his new friend had just said.

"'Become the very best'? So, er, like the strongest, or...?"

Ash shrugged. "It's a combination of things, really. It's about training hard every day so you and your Pokémon become stronger, sure, but it's also about learning more about them and yourself and developing a bond with them. Isn't that right, Pikachu?" he smiled, patting the little yellow Pokémon riding on his shoulder (much like Tails, who was currently straddling Brock's neck) on the head. It gave a pleased, keening 'chuuu'-noise and rubbed its head against his palm, ears twitching.

"Huh." Sonic blinked at the display. He had to admit, the way the little mouse thing appeared to like Ash seemed to lend truth to the boy's words, but he still hadn't forgotten how, when he had sent it to battle him, it hadn't been _his_ life on the line, the human himself staying safely behind on the edge of the clearing, and only having got hurt by accident.

"Other than that, we travel around, learn about new Pokémon, and help out where we can," Ash informed him cheerfully. "And when I'm good enough I want to enter the next big Pokémon tournament."

 _Right, tournaments, Oak mentioned that. Banana league or something..._

"Helping people out?" Sonic asked instead, since that sounded more interesting (and more sympathetic) than yet more stories about the Pokémon battling for their humans. He did wonder how much of that was bragging, though, or how much work Ash and his friends actually put into that and how much they let their Pokémon do.

"Oh. Yeah," To his surprise, the boy then actually looked more embarrassed by Sonic's inquiry than self-satisfied. "I mean, we just do what we can if we see someone has a problem. Like anybody would. I mean, most people are really nice around here, not doing everything you can in return would be rude."

"Right," Sonic replied, a bit hesitantly. Ash _did_ sound like a good kid, at least...and he and his friends were currently helping him out with that police report, too. _After he tried to electrocute me, anyway,_ a voice in Sonic's head added, but then, any further pondering about Ash and his friends was cut off when the forest in front of them ended and they stepped out to the edges of what looked indeed like a bigger city than pallet town had been. Asphalt roads from all sides lead into what appeared like a lively town centre, filled with high rise buildings, shopping windows and hotels, all of it not actually looking that much different from Station Square or Westopolis. Next to the edge of the forest, a large sign proclaimed ' _Viridian City – City of Evergreen'._

"Whew, we made it! Back in civilization!" Misty smiled. "Let's head to the police station. Sonic, Tails, it might be best if you leave most of the talking to us, otherwise it could take twice as long...just give us a description of your friends first as best as you can?"

The descriptions took a while (although – or maybe _because_ \- Tails 'helped' somewhat by also drawing pictures of Knuckles, Amy and Shadow) but at least all three of Ash, Misty and Brock seemed to have an idea of what they were going to file a report for when they walked into the station. Sonic (who had no interest in dealing with any paperwork whatsoever anyway) gladly flung himself into one of the waiting area couch chairs against the back wall as Ash and Misty went to stand in line for the police counter. Brock, on the other hand, seemed to have entered a strange trance the moment they had set foot into the station, but, as Ash and Misty had informed them, that was apparently a very normal event.

However, while he and Tails did indeed attract a few curious looks from the blue-haired officers (who all for some reason seemed to a) be women and b) look _exactly_ alike) none of them at least seemed to think them especially odd, which Sonic suspected would last as long as they didn't speak up.

 _Well. I'm gonna have to start talking to them eventually, but maybe not when it isn't necessary,_ Sonic thought, giving a small yawn. An idea occurred to him, and he blinked, right before pulling out the translator on the wrist strap from underneath his glove, and pressing its power button, turning it off. Immediately, the murmur of human voices around them became incomprehensible, but Sonic actually found it a welcome rest.

"Hey Tails?" he called over, attracting the attention from the fox kit, who had been busily studying the 'wanted' posters on the wall. "I switched off the translator for a moment, we can talk without them all freaking out because we're speaking their language."

"Yeah, I noticed. I was reading the posters and suddenly the letters became gibberish," Tails pointed out. "I think the translator lets us understand written text, too."

"Huh. Cool," Sonic commented, joining his brother before the posters. "Anyway, I was wondering...what do you think of them? Ash, Misty and the others?"

"Hm. They seem nice?" Tails suggested. "Only I think Brock is currently kind of stalking one of the police officers and I hope we won't get arrested for that. Can you turn the translator back on so we'd know if they try to throw us in jail, Sonic?"

"Uh. Sure," Sonic said (also throwing a glance at the darker-skinned boy who indeed somehow seemed to be floating along behind one of the police officers with starry eyes). "Let's check how Ash and Misty are doing – I hope this is done soon and no one else of us has gotten in trouble already..."

xxx

Shadow groaned as he lifted his head. _Something_ had gone terribly wrong.

They had been in the Doctor's lab, he could recall, and then that faker of a hedgehog (and his even more chaotic friends) had destroyed the human's machinery, and there had been an uncontained, unfocused Chaos Control with absolutely _unlimited_ power…

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, ignoring the pain in his body that he wasn't even sure where it came from. Skin stretched underneath charred fur as if he had been burned and for a moment there were images in his head, of bizarre monsters and humans, yelling and roaring…Shadow gasped, clutching at his head as he tried to banish those nightmare images. He _wasn't_ going insane. He wasn't.

He could distinguish fake memories from reality.

He had to believe in that.

Drawing a couple deep, calming breaths, forcing his heart to stop beating quite so fast and his mind to stop spinning, Shadow finally drew himself up on his knees. And then looked around his surroundings and stared.

Stared right at the space outside the large window in front of him, the starlight of an endless universe falling into and illuminating the silent, empty room he was lying in.

The room he had been standing in with Maria more than fifty years ago, aboard the space colony ARK.

"…no," Shadow whispered.

xxx

"...but they're probably totally fine!" Sonic grinned, giving his worried kid brother a thumbs-up.

xxx

 _To be continued..._

* * *

Well, well, happy second advent to everybody! Hope you liked and if you read, please review! :)


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